Naruto:The novel
by shinigamigirl93
Summary: A written-up version of the Naruto anime. Filler episodes will be done in a separate fanfic
1. 001:Uzumaki Naruto Arrives

**Hey guys. Its a Saturday and its a time for a new story from me. This is basically a side project and is a novelisation of the Naruto anime. I hope it goes well.**

_Long ago, there was a demon-fox, who had nine tails. With one shake of its tails, mountains would collapse and tidal waves would rise. The troubled locals gathered together a band of ninja..._

It was a dark moonlit night, there were little clouds in the sky and it was a fairly warm night. It wasn't a night you would expect to find a raging battle to be occurring, yet it was. The nine-tailed fox was closing in on a hidden ninja village. Within the huge forest, which was slowly being destroyed by the battle, the ninja of this village were trying to hold back the beast but to no avail, it was just getting closer.

However they kept on fighting. Their lives depended on it. On the side of the battlefield many injured ninja laid, waiting either to die or until they were healed. Some of the lesser injured ninja were waiting on the side-lines shouting orders to their men.

"Stall it until the Fourth Hokage arrives!" and "Don't let it get any closer to the village." they shouted.

Suddenly, far off in the distance stood a huge toad in which a tall man stood on it's back, the nine-tailed fox became distracted by this and it temporarily halted its advance on the village. The man on it's back was preparing for what he knew was going to be the end.

_A single ninja risked his life in putting a seal on the demon but he perished in the process. That ninja was called the Fourth Hokage_

A blinding light shone from the place where the Fourth Hokage stood, it engulfed the nine-tailed fox and it became no more. At that time somewhere in the village a baby boy started crying.

12 years later, in the village of Konoha, not far from the battlefield, the villagers carried on with their lives, as peacefully as possible.

But on this particular morning, the peacefulness was disturbed by mischievous laughing and enraged shouting.

A young 12-year old boy ran through the wide streets of Konoha. He was wearing orange tracksuit bottoms, a black t-shirt with an orange jacket around his waist, he also had a pair of blue open-top shoes on. He had short spiky blonde hair with a pair of green goggles on his forehead. His mouth was open in a wide grin laughing while he ran.

In his hands was a bucket filled with paint, which was tipping over the side of the bucket causing it to splatter on the pathway.

Closely following this child were two angry ninja shouting at him, 'Naruto! That is a terrible desecration!', 'We're not forgiving you this time!'.

The boy known as Naruto then jumped up the side of a building and all three of them were chasing each other over the building rooftops. Naruto found this the most fun and laughed even louder.

'Shut it! You lot can't do anything like that, can you? But I can. I'm pretty amazing!' Naruto shouted at the ninja. There in the mountain-face behind him, were carvings of what seemed to be of four very important men, however instead of the usual stone surface, they were desecrated with ridiculous doodles done in paint

Meanwhile in a large, traditional Japanese room, containing a few jars and scrolls and not much else, an old wise man sat doing calligraphy. Two ninja burst into the room shouting 'Hokage-sama', 'Third Hokage, it's a disaster.'

The man briefly looked up and asked nonchalantly 'Has Naruto got up to something again?'

They replied together 'Hai, he dared to draw graffiti on the rock carvings of the Hokage ancestors.'

He just deeply sighed, looked away and puffed his pipe hanging from his mouth, he knew that it would have been Naruto but he was slightly disappointed in how far he had gone.

The chase between Naruto and his pursuers still raged on. Sick of it Naruto jumped to the ground and continued on foot to catch the ninja off guard and it did, but didn't take them long to realise and land where he had, shouting after him 'wait' as they went.

Where they landed was a wooden fence make of long thick planks of wood, once they'd passed, part of the fence gave a little rustle and upon revealing, turned out to be Naruto hiding behind a wooden camouflaged sheet. He was smiling greatly when he noticed that he had fooled them and had gave them the slip.

'As if I would' said Naruto while giggling and scratching the back of his head.

Suddenly behind him another ninja had appeared and he didn't look happy. His face was one of pure rage. He had the standard ninja uniform on, a blue top and pants and a green body-warmer and his ninja headband, to prove he is worthy. He had long brown hair, pulled back into a ponytail and had a scar running along the bridge of his nose. Apart from this he appeared to be like any other person.

He shouted at him 'Naruto, you little' causing Naruto give a little scream in fear, jump in the air from fright and land on his behind.

Naruto put on a face of innocence and said 'Iruka-sensei, what did you do that for?'

To this Iruka replied 'and what are you doing, during class time?' while pointing at him, to give added emphasis

Later on after lots of pushing and shoving, Iruka was standing in front of his class at the academy with Naruto tied up at the front with him. All the children in the class were staring at the pair up front. Iruka giving Naruto a lecture.

'Listen Naruto. You failed your graduation exam last time, and the time before. This is no time to be getting into trouble!'

Naruto looks away with an indignant face, thinking what he'd done wasn't wrong at all.

Iruka became pretty pissed off by this and instantly took it out on his class. 'Today we'll do a revision test of the Henge no Jutsu! Those who have already passed must also do it!'

The whole class groaned at this, they didn't want to do a test because Naruto couldn't behave himself, they wished he would just leave them alone.

After a few minutes of getting prepared they were arranged into a line. First up was a girl who had pink hair tied up in a red bow, blue eyes and she wore a dark pink dress and a pair of grey shorts underneath. She was forming a hand sign and said 'Here I come, Haruno Sakura! Henge!'

There was a small bang and Sakura was surrounded by smoke, when it cleared Sakura was shown to now be a perfect transformation of Iruka.

Iruka said 'Very good.' and made a note on his clipboard. Sakura ended the jutsu and was celebrating and giggled 'Yatta!' but inside she was thinking 'Damn it.' She turned to the boy after her and asked 'Sasuke-kun, did you see me do that?'

After that Iruka said 'Next – Uchiha Sasuke!' and the boy took Sakura's place. He wore a pair of white shorts coupled with a blue top. Iruka was distracted while making notes and when he looked up Sasuke had already performed the jutsu and transformed into Iruka. Iruka's response was 'Good'.

Sasuke returned to normal as Iruka called for Uzumaki Naruto. Sasuke moved out the way as Naruto prepared himself. Behind him on one side was a boy called Shikamaru and said 'This is such a pain.' to Naruto. The girl on Naruto's other side, a girl called Ino, said 'It's all your fault.'

To both of them Naruto replied 'Don't blame me', even if it was his fault he didn't want other people to think it was, and walked up in front of Naruto. Further down the line was a girl called Hinata was there thinking 'I hope you can do it Naruto-kun'

Naruto tried with all his might to control the chakra within him to be able to transform his body, it caused blue waves of energy to go all around his body. He shouted 'Henge' then there was the familiar bang and cloud of smoke, but once it cleared there was a tall thin girl with long hair in pigtails. She was naked but wisps of cloudy like smoke prevented anything being seen. She winked at Iruka and blew him a kiss. From this Iruka was shocked and caused him to be flown back through a huge fountain of blood from his nose.

Naruto returned to normal and was laughing as hard as he could, 'How's that? I'm calling it the Oiroke no Jutsu!'

Iruka's nostrils flared up and shouted 'You idiot! Don't invent such a stupid jutsu!'

At the end of the day of the academy, Iruka marched Naruto to the rock-face with the Hokages faces on. His punishment was to clean every piece of graffiti there.

Naruto worked in silence for most of the afternoon, until its started getting late and Naruto was complaining.

'God damn it' He moaned while scrubbing a Hokage's cheek with a cloth.

'I won't let you go home until you've cleaned it all up' Iruka called from the top of the mountain, with his arms folded in frustration.

'I don't care! Its not like there's anyone at home' Naruto said with contempt, he quickly dropped his head as if to hide tears which may come.

Iruka looked down at him and couldn't help but pity him. Suddenly inspiration came to him and he said gently and cautiously 'Naruto...'

Naruto looked up at him with a suspicious look at Iruka due to the change in tone of his voice, he was also a little irritated by him talking. 'What now?' he called up.

Iruka thought about how best to word it, so he said slowly, 'Erm. If you clean it all up, ill treat you to Ramen tonight.'

Iruka looked down and saw Naruto's ecstatic face looking back. He shouted 'Right then! I'm going to get this clean!' and within 30 minutes he had it cleaned.

After they had put all equipment away, they went to the Ramen shop in the middle of the village. They were the only two people in the shop so it was easy to have a private conversation.

'Naruto,' Iruka started and when Naruto acknowledged that he heard, he continued 'Why did you do that graffiti? You know who the Hokages are, don't you?'

Through a mouthful of food Naruto replied 'Of course I do', He cleared his throat and carried on 'In short, those who received the name Hokage were the best ninja in the village. The fourth was a hero who protected the village from a demon-fox.'

Iruka had turned towards Naruto and asked 'Then why...'

Naruto simply put it that 'Eventually I'm going to take the name of Hokage and I'm going to surpass all the Hokages of the past!' Naruto pointed his chopstick at Iruka as if to put his point across easily. 'And I'm going to make everyone in the village recognise my powers.'

Iruka was amazed by how passionate this boy was about becoming Hokage. Iruka thought that he believed it was an easy path to becoming Hokage. Iruka realised he had some noodles hanging out his mouth so he sucked them up so he didn't look dumb-struck.

Naruto changed his tone of voice to a more pleading way, 'By the way... there's a favour I'd like to ask...'

'Seconds?'

'No.. let me wear the tree-leaf headband for just a little while.' Naruto asked as nicely as he could.

'Oh, this?' Iruka reached for his headband, 'No this is proof that I've graduated and am recognised as a fully-fledged ninja. You could get yours tomorrow.'

Naruto shouted 'You're mean!'

Iruka laughed and said 'That's why you took your goggles off!'

Naruto called for seconds before Iruka could say anything, but when he heard what Naruto had said he shut up quite quickly and gave a little shout in complaint but he got him seconds anyway.

Next day, at the academy. Naruto was sitting in his usual seat, waiting for Iruka to appear and tell them what the test was going to be on. He hoped that it was going to be on something he was good at.

Iruka appeared holding a piece of paper 'We'll now commence the graduation exam.' The chatter in the room died down immediately. 'Come to the room next door when your name is called. And the topic is the bunshin no jutsu'

Once Naruto heard this his head started spinning, and he started sweating, he thought 'Of all the possible jutsus, its the one I'm least good at!

Naruto was called forwards relatively quickly and followed Iruka into a room down the hall. In the desk in front of Iruka and a ninja Naruto had never seen before, were rows of leaf headbands.

Naruto stepped up to his place in the middle of the room and prepared himself, he thought 'I'm going to go for it! I'm not going to fail this time.' Naruto started gathering his chakra and the familiar blue chakra swirled around him, he called out 'Bunshin no jutsu' and the bang of cloud surrounded them. Once it had cleared Naruto looked to the side and seen a very badly performed clone of him, it was lying flat on the floor with it's tongue sticking out.

Iruka got very agitated at this, with his dream being so high he found that Naruto was never going to make it if he kept making clones like this. He instantly shouted 'Fail!' at Naruto.

The other teacher sitting next to Iruka, with shoulder length white hair, said 'Iruka-sensei, he scores highly in terms of movement and stamina and he has technically performed bunshin no jutsu. Perhaps you could pass him...' Naruto got his hopes up at this and started getting excited.

Iruka sighed and looked slightly down, 'Mizuki-sensei, everyone else has split into at least three bodies. But Naruto has only produced one. Moreover, this replica would just get in his way! I cannot pass him.'

Naruto started getting angry, he started to resent Iruka because of his comments.

Later on, after everyone was tested, it was found out that everyone but Naruto had passed. The kids were laughing between themselves and the parents were congratulating them on their graduation.

Two particular people looked over at a swing and on it sat a sad, depressed Naruto.

'That kid. It's you know who. Apparently he's the only one who failed. Serves him right'

'It would be a disaster if he became a ninja because he's actually...'

'Stop there! You shouldn't say any more'

Naruto sat there and put on his googles, as Mizuki came sneaking up on Naruto, Naruto noticed him and decided to follow him.

At the front of the group of celebrating kids were Iruka and the Third Hokage

'Iruka... I need to talk to you later.'

Iruka was looking at the swing in which Naruto had just departed from and replied 'Hai'

Naruto followed Mizuki until they were sitting on a balcony of a high building, watching the sun set.

Mizuki started a bit cautiously since he didn't know how Naruto would react 'it's not that Iruka-sensei is being spiteful, you know.'

Naruto didn't look at him and sounding like he was close to tears he replied 'Then why am I always failed?'

'He want you to become strong in the true sense. As a fellow orphan.'

Naruto's eyes widened at this, he didn't know Iruka was an orphan just like him, but he didn't need to know that and said 'But... I really wanted to graduate.'

Mizuki gave a sneaky laugh and said 'I guess I'll just have to tell you' Naruto finally looked at him in surprise and Naruto made a little confused sound, 'I'll tell you a special secret.'

There was a hopeful, confused and amazed look on Naruto's face and said 'A secret?'

It was late in the night and Iruka was lying in bed thinking about what the Hokage said to Iruka earlier.

The Hokage said 'Iruka.'

'What is it Hokage-sama?'

'I can understand how you feel. But like you Naruto has grown up without knowing the love of parents.'

His mind wandered to the night his parents died, he was there and some ninja dragged him away from them, 'let go! Mum and dad are still fighting!' he shouted as much as he could, however it done nothing to help.

He must have fell asleep because the next thing he knew there was a banging on the door and someone was shouting 'Iruka-sensei, please wake up!'

Iruka jumped out of bed and went to open the door. He opened it up to a distressed looking Mizuki.

'What's happened?'

'Please come to Hokage-sama's. It seems that Naruto has taken the seal scroll'

Iruka couldn't believe it, 'The seal scroll!'

In the middle of one of dark forests surrounding the village, Naruto sat down and opened the seal scroll. He opened it up and read 'Right then! The first jutsu is Tajuu Kage bunshin no jutsu. What? It's one of my weak skills!'

Meanwhile, at the home of the Hokage, dozens of ninjas were gathered to be briefed about the situation. One ninja said 'Hokage-sama, this time it can't just be treated as a bit of mischief!'

Another ninja agreed, 'The seal scroll is a dangerous thing, sealed by the first Hokage! Depending on how it's used. If it's taken out of the village that really would be a disaster.'

Iruka and Mizuki appeared on the scene then while the Hokage thought for a minute, 'Right. You are to bring him back here.' Then that way the Hokage could determine his fate. It can't be gone unpunished but he cant hurt him.

Then all ninjas replied 'Hai' and sped off to find him.

Iruka sped along the rooftops trying to find him first, since the other ninjas would be more rough with him, and Naruto didn't need that.

Iruka was breathing heavily after a while, he thought 'Naruto, where have you gone?'

On the ground, Mizuki raced along, he had two huge shurikens tied to his back. His thoughts were all about Naruto, 'I'll spread this around the village and then get rid of Naruto, then the seal scroll will be mine!' He faced was twisted in a crazed smile.

After a while of training to use the Tajuu Kage bunshin no jutsu, Naruto finally collapsed from exhaustion and was breathing heavily and sweating buckets.

Someone was walking up to him slowly, but with purpose. Naruto looked up to see Iruka stooped over him with an enraged face on. 'Naruto, you...'

Naruto gave an innocent smile and laugh, he didn't seem to realise he'd done anything wrong, Iruka was confused by this. Naruto said 'Oh you've found me. I've only learnt one jutsu so far.'

Iruka thought 'He was practising his jutsu here? Till this hour?

Naruto said very excited 'Hey, hey, I'll show you an amazing skill now. So if I can do it, let me graduate! If I perform a jutsu from this scroll, graduation is guaranteed, right?'

Iruka's mouth opened in shock, 'Who on earth said that?'

Naruto said as if nothing was wrong, 'Mizuki-sensei did! Mizuki-sensei told me about the scroll and this place'

Iruka's eyes widened, he never thought it could have been Mizuki, 'Mizuki did?'

Just then Iruka sensed that someone else was there and from the treetops came kunai knives aimed straight at Iruka and Naruto. Iruka had seconds to react before they hit, so he pushed Naruto out of the way and took the blow. He was pinned again a wooden shack.

'You did well to find this place.' Mizuki called from a nearby tree.

'I get it. It's like that, is it?' Iruka called up wearily, it was clear that his wounds were draining his strength.

'Naruto, hand over the scroll.'

Naruto looked to and from Iruka and Mizuki, 'What's going on?'

Iruka, in one clean motion, pulled a kunai out of his thigh and threw it away, 'Naruto, don't hand over the scroll, whatever you do. It's a dangerous scroll with forbidden ninja arts sealed in it. Mizuki used you in order to obtain it!'

Naruto looked at Mizuki angrily, he had been used.

'Naruto, Iruka is afraid of that scroll being in your possession.' Mizuki said with a sly smile on his face.

Naruto's jaw dropped, he couldn't believe what he was hearing, he didn't know who to trust anymore.

'How dare you, Mizuki? Don't be fooled, Naruto.'

Mizuki laughed at Iruka's weak attempts to keep Naruto on his side. 'I'll tell you the truth.'

Iruka panicked and shouted 'Don't, you idiot.'

'A certain rule was created in the village after the incident 12 years ago.' Mizuki said matter of factly.

Naruto was intrigued by this, 'A certain rule?'

'It was a rule that was never to be revealed to you and you alone, Naruto'

'Me alone? What is that rule?'

'Stop it Mizuki' Iruka shouted.

'A rule that nobody must utter the fact that you are really the demon-fox.' Naruto's eyes widened. 'In other words, you are the nine-tailed demon-fox who killed Iruka's parents and destroyed the village!'

'Stop it!' Iruka shouted again his clothes ripped as he pulled away from the wooden hut which he was pinned to.

'You've been fooled by the villagers all this time. Didn't you think it was strange that you were so hated by everyone?' Memories flitted across Naruto's mind which disturbed him, all he could was shout no over and over again, anger building up in him, causing his chakra levels to rise and swirl around him.

Iruka seeing this made him start to worry about what was going to happen to Naruto through knowing this secret.

And, as if to rub it in, Mizuki had to dig the knife even further and said 'Nobody will accept you. Iruka hates you too.'

The pain in Iruka's leg distracted him but as he did, he remembered more of the Hokage's words spoken only to him. 'Iruka, Naruto doesn't know parental love and is rejected by the villagers because of that incident. So he has no recourse but to make mischief, in order to attract attention. He wants the worth of his existence to be acknowledged, in whatever form. He acts as if he's strong, but it's he who is suffering the most.'

Up in the tree, Mizuki grabbed one of his shurikens from his back and started swinging it. From what was most likely fear Mizuki shouted 'Die Naruto.' and let it loose.

As it came flying towards Naruto, Iruka shouted 'Get down, Naruto!'

Naruto ducked and put his hands over his head. When he looked up he seen Iruka force himself over Naruto to protect him. The giant shuriken had lodged itself in Iruka's back and Naruto was unharmed. The pain was immense, the pain in his leg felt only a scratch to this pain. Blood couldn't help but come spurting out his mouth.

'Why?' Naruto stuttered.

Words full of pain, not from the wound but from his past experiences, Iruka told Naruto, 'Because we're the same. After my parents dies, there was nobody to praise me or accept me. I turned out badly, and often played the fool in class because I wanted to attract attention. I couldn't attract their attention by being brilliant so I always played the fool. I really suffered.' Long hidden memories came back to him as he thought about it, he involuntarily started crying. He never once tried to understand Naruto and now he just realised that they were the same. 'Isn't that right, Naruto? You were lonely, weren't you? You found it hard, didn't you? I'm sorry, Naruto. If I'd been better, I could have prevented you from feeling that way.'

Mizuki was enjoying this, he laughed at his pain and shouted gleefully 'You make me laugh! Iruka hated you all along for killing his parents. He's saying all this just to get the scroll back from you!'

Not knowing who to trust, but knowing he had to get away from there, Naruto fled further into the forest. Behind him Iruka called his name.

Mizuki jumped down from the trees and landed smoothly, 'Naruto is not the type to have a change of heart. With that scroll, he'll exact revenge on this village. You saw his eyes before, didn't you? They're the eyes of a demon-fox.'

Iruka reached round his back and pulled out the weapon he was seriously pissed off now, he said slowly through pain, 'No. Naruto..is..not..like that!' and Iruka threw it at Mizuki with all his might but Mizuki simply took a step to the side and it flew past him.

'To get rid of Naruto and to get hold of that scroll, that's all I want. I'll leave you till later!' Mizuki then took off to find Naruto as he couldn't have gotten far.

With all his determination Iruka was never going to let that happen.

Back in the village, in the mansion of the Hokage, the scene between Naruto, Iruka and Mizuki was unknowingly being watched by the Hokage in his crystal ball. He watched Naruto jumping through the tree-tops. ' dear dear. That Mizuki told him the secret! Naruto is now unstable like never before. His suppressed powers may be released. Plus he has the seal scroll in his hands. It's a one-in-a-million chance, but it's possible that he'll break the seal himself and the nine-tailed fox will appear. If that happens...'

Iruka sped along after Naruto and seen him, 'found him' he thought. He shouted at Naruto and said 'Naruto! What Mizuki said before was nonsense! Hand over the scroll, quickly! Mizuki is after it!'

Naruto quickly landed on a branch and prepared to jump, he aimed directly for Iruka, and hit him. He was sent flying backwards and landed with a crash. Naruto landed smoothly and stood breathing heavily.

Iruka muttered 'No..way..' and Naruto took the scroll off his back and leaned against an old tree nearby.

Iruka turned his head to Naruto and said with the utmost contempt, 'Naruto why... how... did you know I wasn't Iruka?' The jutsu was broken and it was Mizuki disguised as Iruka.

Naruto smiled and laughed, he returned to his normal body and sitting in the pool of smoke was Iruka and a small tree trunk. 'I am Iruka'

Mizuki smirked, 'I see.' Hiding nearby was Naruto and the real Seal scroll and could hear everything what was said, though he wouldn't look in fear of being caught. 'Why protect him to the extent of disguising yourself as your parents' killer?'

'I won't hand over the scroll to a fool like you.' Iruka replied.

'You are the fool. Naruto is the same as me.'

'The same?' Iruka said intrigued by how Naruto could be the same as Mizuki.

'if you use the skills written in that scroll, you can control everything. There is no way that Naruto – that monster fox – won't use the power of the scroll.'

'You're right' Iruka agreed.

Naruto couldn't believe Iruka could think of his in that way, he felt betrayed, as if the last person who he could trust abandoned him. 'It's like that after all, you see. Deep down, even Iruka-sensei doesn't accept me.' Naruto said quietly voiced filled with hurt.

Naruto heard Iruka continue, 'If he were a monster fox. But Naruto is different. I have recognised him as an outstanding student. He's a trier and he's single-minded, yet he's clumsy and nobody accepts him. He knows how it feels for a person to suffer in their heart. He's not a monster fox. He's Uzumaki Naruto, of Konoha.'

Naruto could feel tears were flooding from his eyes but he made no move to remove them, all he could do was hold on to the scroll in his hands.

Mizuki's eye twitched slightly, 'he seriously said that', he thought. 'You're a soft fool! Iruka, I said I'd leave you till later but I've changed my mind. It's time for you to die!' He unclipped his last weapon, he spun it around in his hand and ran forwards towards Iruka.

Iruka was expecting to die, but he didn't expect it to happened here and now, 'is this it?' he thought.

However just before he hit Iruka, Naruto sped onto the scene and kneed Mizuki in the face to stop the attack on Iruka. Mizuki was now weapon-less since it flew up through the trees.

Iruka was really shocked by the appearance of Naruto, he didn't expect his saviour to be his own student.

Mizuki simply got up and said to Naruto, 'Not bad..'

Naruto stood facing Mizuki, holding the scroll with his hand against the floor.

'Don't touch Iruka-sensei. I'll kill you.'

'Shut-up! I'll finish off a kid like you in one stroke.'

'Try it. I'll return it a thousand-fold.' Naruto said while performing a hand sign.

'Come on then, if you can, you monster fox!'

Iruka stared at Naruto, worried because he didn't think that Naruto would be able to stand up against Mizuki, he was about to tell him to run away and get help when Naruto shouted 'Kage bunshin no jutsu' and his eyes widened. He was staring at thousands of Naruto's.

'Naruto, Kage bunshin no jutsu – and advanced jutsu that reproduces the real physical entity.' Iruka thought, he sat there proud of how well Naruto had done to produce this many clones.

Mizuki didn't know where to turn to first, he didn't even know where the real Naruto was at.

'What the...' Mizuki wondered.

All the Naruto clones started shouting 'Come on then,' and 'come on, over here'

Mizuki became really scared, as the Naruto's said, 'In that case, I'll start first.' Mizuki screamed as they all rushed forward to beat him up.

Naruto ended the jutsu after they had beaten Mizuki up. He lay broken and bloody on the forest floor and shuddered.

Naruto giggled at Iruka and said 'I overdid it a bit. Iruka-sensei, are you all right?'

Iruka couldn't say anything but yes. He was amazed by how far Naruto had came in the space of a few hours. 'Very impressive. Maybe he really could surpass every Hokage' Iruka thought hopefully.

'Come here a second, Naruto. There's something I want to give you.' Iruka said a bit wearily.

Back at the village, just before dawn, the ninjas who tried to track Naruto gathered.

'Has Naruto been found?'

'No, it's no good.'

'Damn it – this is looking bad.' They all discussed.

The Hokage slowly walked up to the group and said, 'There's no longer anything to worry about.'

They all looked round at his presence, one ninja said slightly confused, 'Hokage-sama.'

Before they could ask any questions, the Hokage said 'He'll be back before long.'

Iruka had told Naruto to close his eyes, and after a while, Naruto said, 'How much longer, Iruka-sensei?'

'Right, you can open your eyes now' Naruto slowly opened them so they could re-adjust to the light levels. Once his vision cleared he saw that Iruka was missing his headband and had Naruto's goggles in his hand. The sun blazed on his already glowing smile.

'Congratulations on you graduation.' Iruka said. Iruka had put the leaf headband on Naruto across his forehead and tied in at the back. Naruto was now a real ninja. He was dumb-struck. He didn't know what to do or to say.

'Right! To celebrate I'll treat you to ramen!' Naruto was too shocked to smile but the sides of his lips twitched as if for a smile. Iruka looked and was shocked to see this, did he do the wrong thing he thought.

However Naruto jumped on Iruka and tried to give him a big hug. 'Iruka-sensei'

'Ouch, that hurt!' He replied, and then started fussing over him, like a parent would do.

'Naruto, I was going to lecture you, that the hardest part for a ninja is only the beginning... But I'll save that till we get to the ramen shop!' Iruka thought.

_List of Jutsu used in this Chapter_

_Henge no Jutsu – Transformation Jutsu_

_Oiroke no Jutsu – Sexy Jutsu_

_Bunshin no Jutsu – Clone Jutsu_

_(Tajuu) Kage Bunshin no Jutsu – (multi) Shadow Clone Jutsu_

**As you can tell I watched the japanese anime and used english translations, so i decided to stick a list at the end of the translations of jutsu's. I hope that this chapter went well, please let me know what you think of it. Please review for me.**


	2. 002:I Am Konohamaru

**Hey again. This week has been hell! 3 exams one going good, another going okay and another being just so terrible i died inside at the first question (and the paper was supposed to be easy too). So yeah hell on earth for me, but at least its the weekend a bit of time to relax before forcing myself to revise tomorrow. But enough of that. This chapter is fairly short in comparison to the first but I mean come on, not much happened in this episode anyway. Well hopefully I managed to do well in this chapter considering that**

**I would like to thank my first reviewer for this story and for all his reviews in my other, Thank you *bows at screen***

**Anyway on with the chapter**

Disclamer - I don't own Naruto, Kishimoto-sensei does and always will (we all love you for your hard work being put into this amazing anime and manga)

The day after the incident in the forest with the three individuals, Mizuki, Iruka and Naruto, Mizuki was transported to the prison for rogue ninja. Peace returned to the village, though it remained a hot topic in the villages gossip for quite some time.

The day had come when Naruto had to complete his ninja registration form before officially being called a ninja.

On the rooftop of the Hokage's mansion, a photographer was hired to take a picture of the individual graduates. He managed to get through the first few fine but when Naruto came along, he got a little concerned.

'Are you really going to have a photo taken with a face like that?' he asked Naruto.

Naruto waved his arms wildly in the air and shouted 'Doesn't matter, doesn't matter!'

The photographer gave in, whatever it took to get through the day quickly he'd do, even if it was this, so he got under the cloth on the back of the camera and said 'I hope you don't regret it. Say cheese'

And the camera flashed, and Naruto was pictured with wilder spiky hair, white face-paint all over his face with red spirals on top.

Few days later, Naruto was called to the academy to discuss his ninja registration form, as did all the other graduates. The Hokage, with another ninja, over-saw the process.

Naruto was sitting in a chair in the middle of the large room they were in, with the Hokage in front with a table with various papers on.

The Hokage had hold of Naruto's form. It had the photo which was took days before. He looked at the photo and then back at Naruto to find him with a cheeky grin on his face. He noticed this and giggled slightly. The Hokage sighed.

'It was really hard to decide on a good expression – that took three hours. But it turned out rather arty and pretty cool.' Naruto was talking about the ridiculous face-paint he had on but the Hokage did not approve.

'You must redo the photo.' He simply said.

Naruto was leaning back on his chair and it took a second to comprehend what he was saying. 'No way!'

'Have it taken again.'

'Don't say that.'

They both tried to stare the other down and make them take their words back. This annoyed Naruto a lot so he decided to see how the Hokage took to his new jutsu. Naruto shouted 'Henge' and transformed into the tall blonde girl, with her voice he said 'Hokage-sama...'

The Hokage couldn't help himself he struggled against the attractiveness of the girl and his own common sense and restraint but Naruto won, and the Hokage was flown back over his chair by his own fountain of blood from his nose.

Naruto heard the crash of the Hokage's chair crashing on the floor, and seen that the Hokage was stunned by his jutsu so he immediately ended it. He looked as shocked as the Hokage was and expected to be severely punished for it.

Outside the room they were in, somebody was listening in.

The Hokage had pulled himself up and wiped his nose on a tissue.

'The Oiroke no jutsu.. what a terrible skill to use'

Naruto had also sat down and nervously laughed, he was thankful that he wasn't punished but he could tell that the Hokage wasn't happy.

'By the way Naruto, where's your headband?' The Hokage asked

Naruto reached to his goggles and said 'I'm not putting it on until induction day because it'll get damaged.'

'That aside, this form is a top-secret document just for within the village and an important paper for you as well,' He picked up the paper and looked at it again, 'So what's this face?'

'But I don't really understand all that stuff!' Naruto protested, he wanted his form to stand out above all the others.

The person who was observing the situation outside, lifted up a shuriken. He had small hands which barely managed to hold the shuriken properly. The Hokage noticed that there was somebody out there, he knew the whole time but he knew that he was now intent to kill, Naruto had only just sensed it, and they both looked towards the door.

It was slammed open and there was a little boy with long brown hair sticking out the top of his hat and a long blue scarf on. He ran towards the Hokage holding his choice of weapon and shouted 'I'm gonna fight you, old man! The title of Fifth Hokage belongs to me, Konohamaru!'

As he readied his weapon, he suddenly tripped and fell over. Naruto just stared at the kid with disbelief thinking he had gone crazy. Konohamaru curled up into a fetal position and held his face saying ouch over and over again.

The Hokage just tipped his hat down as if he was slightly embarrassed by this display and thought 'This happens again and again..'

A ninja ran up to the door and noticed Konohamaru here. He wore a blue jumper and a pair of round black tinted glasses, and he had his leaf headband as a bandanna.

'Damn it! Is this a trap?' Konohamaru said as he lifted himself up onto his knees and rubbed his head, he was looking straight at Naruto as he said it.

This new ninja looked to and from him and Naruto and said 'Are you all right, Honourable Grandson? Incidentally, there are no traps anywhere.'

Naruto stared at Konohamaru thinking 'what the hell's up with him?'

The ninja just realised who it was sitting there, 'I'm sure that's the nine-tailed brat, the loser whom I detest.' He smirked.

Konohamaru walked up to Naruto, and using him as an excuse for his embarrassment he said 'I get it, You did something, didn't you?' He pointed at him.

Naruto became enraged by Konohamaru's insolence, a vein pulsed in his forehead and he grabbed the kid by his scarf.

'You fell over by yourself, that's all!' He shouted at him.

As Konohamaru expected, the ninja who followed him came to his defence and shouted at Naruto, 'Let go of him! He is the grandson of the Third Hokage!'

Naruto looked back at Konohamaru and saw him thinking, 'He too stops as soon as he finds out who I am.' He made an amused sound 'I bet he's going to be the same as Teacher specs and everyone else.'

'What's up? If you reckon you can hit me, hit me! You won't do anything because I'm the grand...' He taunted at Naruto.

Naruto took the bait and shouted 'Who cares about that? You idiot!' Naruto gave him a hard hit to the head, maybe it might knock some sense into him, he thought.

This knocked Konohamaru out cold and he hit the floor with a large bang. The ninja was appalled by what had happened.

'Wh..What the..'

'Oh, dear.' the Hokage said.

When Konohamaru came around, his teacher said, 'Please listen carefully. You are the grandson of the Third Hokage. Even if you are punched you must not entertain someone like him. Nothing good will come of taking on someone like him. I, Ebisu, you elite tutor, am never wrong! You want to become the Fifth Hokage, don't you? If I teach you the ninja arts it will be easy for you to use the Hokage name. Yes, learning from me is the quickest route to becoming the Fifth Hokage. You understand, don't you, Honourable Grandson?'

During his speech, Konohamaru had disappeared and Ebisu couldn't find him anywhere.

'He's gone!'

'It seems he has followed Naruto.' The Hokage said.

'What? That's a disaster!' Ebisu ran out the room and off to catch up to the two of them shouting after the Honourable Grandson.

Back in the room he'd just left, the Hokage was thinking 'I wonder why he's grown into a kid like that. I think that was his 20th surprise attack today. I'll worry about him even more if he hangs around with Naruto. I hope he doesn't get any stupid ideas from him...'

Down in the streets of Konoha, Naruto was walking home, however every few minutes he turned around to look behind him, he he knew he was being followed. Konohamaru was following him but from a distance as to not be seen. If he ever got to close and didn't have anywhere to hide he quickly pulled out a camouflaged sheet and pulled it over him, but he wasn't very adapt in concealment so it meant Naruto always seen part of him, whether it was an elbow of his shoes, he knew it was Konohamaru. However since he didn't really care all that much Naruto kept walking and didn't bother with him.

After a while Naruto started getting pissed off by this so at one time, he turned around and shouted at the part of the fence with the planks at the opposite angle and said 'Don't follow me! What the hell is it?'

Konohamaru stayed as still as he could be and didn't answer. Naruto told him 'I'm saying you're completely visible.'

Konohamaru just giggled at this and the sheet he was holding started to shake, he brought it down so his face was free and said, 'You saw through that very well, you're worthy of your reputation,' Konohamaru walked up to him, 'I'll let you have me as you disciple.

Naruto was dumb-struck by this, it wasn't what he was expecting

'In return, teach me the Oiroke no jutsu that overpowered my grandfather!'

Naruto had heard enough and turned slightly away and folded his arms, he said 'You've got to be kidding.'

'Don't say that! I beg you, boss.'

'Boss?' Naruto said, his ears pricking up at the sound of it

'Boss, boss, boss!' Konohamaru repeated.

Naruto, liking the sound of 'boss', finally agreed to Konohamaru's request, 'oh, all right then,' he said.

Further in the middle of the village Naruto said, 'Listen, in order to be proficient in ninjutsu, you have to control your chatra effectively.'

'Chatra?' Konohamaru said, he suddenly thought of a cat licking it's paw for some reason

'Yes, chatra.' Naruto said

'Boss, do you mean chakra?' Konohamaru asked.

Naruto realised he made a huge mistake and to make himself feel better he said 'Shut up! Those ninja in the know call it chatra!'

Konohamaru, being a little bit simple, believed him and replied 'Oh, right, I see!'

Naruto became relieved and thought 'Luckily for me, he's an idiot.'

'Listen up, the chakra is...' Naruto started

'Put simply, it's the energy you use when performing a jutsu,' Konohamaru finished for him, 'Ninjustu are carried out by combining the chakra – the physical energy gathered from every cell in your body – with the spiritual energy you build up through training and experience, uniting them in clasped hands.'

Naruto noticed that Konohamaru was reading from a scroll and told him off for it, 'You're just reading that!'

'Well, there's a lot of blurb written about it, but to perform a jutsu well, essentially..' Naruto said

'Essentially?' Konohamaru asked

'...you need hard work and persistence.' Naruto said in a teachers voice.

'Hard work and persistence?' Konohamaru repeated.

'That's right. I'm going to train you hard from now on, so be prepared!'

'Yes, boss!'

'Right, let's cut to the chase. Try to transform yourself,' Konohamaru looked confused at this, 'I'm going to see what level your ninjutsu are at.' Naruto answered to the unsaid question.

'But what shall I change into?'

Naruto looked around for a bit until he found a fairly pretty woman at a stall in the street. Naruto pointed at her and said 'Right! First, turn into that lady.'

'Easy peasy! Henge!' Konohamaru said while performing his hand sign and he transformed... into a fat woman who looked nothing like the woman.

'How's that? Do I look like her?' he said in a deep female voice.

'Erm..yes..the clothes are the same..' Naruto said, but he looked over his shoulder to see the woman behind him looking really angry at him.

'How is she similar?' she said and hit him.

'Honourable Grandson. When you transform into me, please make sure you're much cuter.' She said with utmost politeness. She waved and walked off.

Seeing what state Naruto was in, Konohamaru was scared of the woman and said 'Scary' to no-one in particular.

'Why do I get beaten up?' Naruto said from the floor.

They next came to the book-store.

'OK! Next we study pheromones at the bookshop!'

'Yes, Boss!'

They silently slid the door open to find the shop-keeper was deeply asleep, they crouched slightly and sneaked in.

Naruto when straight to a magazine and picked it up, it had a picture of a blonde woman in a grey bikini.

They both opened it up with a crazily happy look on their faces with a small amount of drool coming from their mouths.

Behind them was the shop-keeper as he had awoken from his slumber.

'Naruto, I've told you before that I don't allow customers to stand and read in here.' He tapped something against his back and they both turned round to see his furious face.

They next arrived at the Konoha bathhouse, Naruto had been hit again by the shop-keeper and was given a black eye.

'This is our last task! Let's throw ourselves into this one!'

'Yes Boss'

'Henge!' They both said and transformed into two girls. They nodded at each other and went in. Yet only seconds later, many girls screamed 'Naruto, is that you again?' and proceeded to beat him up badly.

'Why am I the only one who always gets beaten up?'

They were standing on the outskirts of the forests to take a break.

'Sorry. It's because I'm Hokage's grandson'

'Don't worry about it! You've now completed your preparations for the Oiroke no jutsu. All that remains is for you to practise.'

Konohamaru looked stunned for a second and then understood what was going on and said 'Yes, Boss!'

'Remember, the principle is, "bang, squeak, bang"! Go for it!'

'Yes, Boss! Henge!' Konohamaru had transformed into a fat woman who didn't look attractive at all, 'This is what I've come up with...'

'No, no, no! Think more slender!'

'Yes, Boss!'

He tried again, 'How about this?'

'No, no, think more beautiful!'

'Yes, Boss! How about this, then?'

Elsewhere, Ebisu was searching high and low to find Konohamaru but to no avail. He could not find them anywhere.

'That Naruto... What does he intend to do to Honourable Grandson? Where has that brat gone? I'm an elite tutor who has nurtured many future Hokage candidates. I'll remove any vermin that attaches itself to my student – without fail!'

He set off searching again in a random direction hoping to find some trace of them.

Back in the woods, Naruto and Konohamaru decided to take a break and had some cans of juice. They were sitting on a log having a drink when Naruto asked 'By the way, why are you always lashing out at your grandfather?'

Konohamaru seemed surprised to hear Naruto ask that.

'Grandfather named me Konohamaru after the name of this village. But even though it's such a familiar name around here, nobody calls me by it. Whenever they see me or call me, everyone just regards me as Hokage's grandchild. Nobody recognises me as myself. I'm fed up with that now. So that's why I want the name of Hokage, now!'

Naruto was silent for a minute thinking about what he'd said, it sounded very familiar to him, because it was exactly how he felt. He's never been regarded as Naruto Uzumaki he's always been seen as, not knowing until recently, the nine-tailed fox.

'That's stupid. Who would recognise someone like you?' Konohamaru looked up at this and looked at Naruto. 'It's not such an easy title to obtain, that a kid can talk about it.' Konohamaru protested but Naruto ignored it, 'It's not that easy. You're always going on about "Hokage". If you want that name so much...'

'Yeah, what?' Konohamaru was angry at this

Naruto looked at him with an anxious face, '...defeat me first!'

On the roof of the Hokage's mansion, Iruka met up with the Hokage to find out about Naruto's registration form

'Third Hokage, I looked all over for you.'

'Is that you Iruka?'

'Did Naruto submit the ninja registration form properly?'

'Yes.'

'The other day I gave him a pep talk at the Ramen shop but he was getting carried away, saying he would gain the approval of the village by becoming a true ninja.'

The Hokage just kept looking at the Hokage faces.

'Naruto's dream may be pretty hard to achieve,' he said, 'As you know, the only ones who know that the nine-tailed fox is sealed within Naruto are adults who fought against the demon 12 years ago,' The Hokage remembered the day clearly, 'Since then I decreed that this should never be spoken about and have punished those who broke this rule severely. As a result, the children today don't know about it. For Naruto, that is the only thing that protects him. The Fourth Hokage wanted the villagers to see Naruto as a hero. With that wish, he sealed in the demon and died.'

'A hero?' Iruka questioned.

'He sealed the demon in the navel of a baby whose umbilical chord had just been cut. Naruto became a vessel for the demon-fox for the same of the rest of the village. But the adults in the village do not look upon Naruto in that way. Some even started to say that Naruto was the nine-tailed demon-fox. Now it's got to the point where the attitudes of the adults have been passed on to the children without us having realised it. Do you know, Iruka...'

'Know what?'

'When people dislike someone and don't accept their existence, their eyes as they look upon that person are so cold, it's terrifying.'

Ebisu was racing through the trees, it was the only place he hadn't looked so he knew they had to be here somewhere in here. He finally found them still sitting on the log.

'I've found you!' he called from the treetops, wretched demon fox he thought.

Naruto stood up in a defensive stand, 'That look again...that everybody gives me.' Naruto thought.

Ebisu jumped from where he stood to land on the same level as them and said 'Honourable Grandson, let us go home.'

'No! I'm going to defeat Grandfather and become a Hokage now! Don't get in my way!' Konohamaru protested.

'You can only become a Hokage once you have understood the Eight Logics and are adept at over 1000 jutsu.'

Tired of being pushed around he shouted 'Henge!' and transformed into a long haired naked brunette female, 'Take that! Oiroke no jutsu!'

Ebisu was outraged at this. Konohamaru went back to normal he said 'Eh? It doesn't work.'

'What a... What a vulgar jutsu! I am a gentleman! I will never fall for such a base jutsu! Honourable Grandson, if you stay with that joker you'll become more and more stupid! The shortest route to taking the Hokage name is to do as I say! Let's go home now!' Ebisu had grabbed Konohamaru's scarf and pulled as Konohamaru pulled the other way.

'I don't want to!' he shouted.

'Kage bunshin no jutsu!' Naruto shouted, splitting into multiple bodies.

'Wow! This is amazing!' Konohamaru said excitedly

'Pathetic. I am an elite tutor, despite my appearance. I'm not like Mizuki.'

Naruto prepared himself.

'Come on.' Ebisu said.

'Henge!' All the Narutos chanted. They all transformed into the naked female form.

They all rushed to hold him saying 'Ebisu-saan.'

He was flown back by the fountain of blood from his nose and was left to shake and quiver.

'I called it the Haaremu no jutsu.'

'He's combined the Kage bunshin no jutsu with the Oiroke no jutsu.' The Hokage said after watching the scene on his crystal ball, 'He's come up with another ridiculous jutsu. I'd completely fall for it...probably' he thought embarrassed by it.

The sun was setting and on the edge of the forest Konohamaru was kicking up a fuss.

'Damn it! I wasn't even able to defeat teacher specs. Again! Why? I'm so desperate for the name that will be recognised by everyone.'

'Don't expect it to be so easy.' Konohamaru looked up at Naruto at this comment, 'You're talking about stealing the name that signifies the undisputed No 1 ninja. The journey will be paved with hard times and lots of personal torment. I've now got one person who rates me but even that was really, really hard!' Naruto was talking about Iruka but he didn't to know that, 'You have to be mentally prepared.'

'Prepared?'

'For the fact that there is no short-cut to calling yourself by the grand name of Hokage, which everyone looks up to.'

Konohamaru thought back to Naruto's proposition of him having to defeat Naruto to become Hokage, and realised he had been lying. He turned his back on Naruto

'Don't lecture me like some big guy! I'm not going to be your disciple anymore! From now on... we're rivals!' Konohamaru grinned at Naruto and seen Naruto smiled back at him.

'Sorry, but from tomorrow I'm going to be a ninja, one step ahead of you. But one day I'll fight you over the name of Hokage. You look forward to that day, Konohamaru.'

He was surprised to hear Naruto use his name and not Honourable Grandson like his usually expected from people. As he was recovering, Naruto slowly walked off but waved at him as he went.

Konohamaru saluted at Naruto.

Through his crystal ball, the Hokage seen this exchange of words and was pleased by it.

'There's still a very long way to go on the road to becoming a true ninja' He thought while grinning largely.

_List of Jutsu used in this Chapter_

_Henge – Transform_

_Oiroke no Jutsu – Sexy Jutsu_

_Kage Bunshin no Jutsu – Shadow Clone Jutsu_

_Haaremu no Jutsu – Harem Technique_


	3. 003:Rivals! Sasuke and Sakura

**I tried to upload this earlier on (8 hours ago, when in was around 1am in the UK) but for some reason it just wouldn't let me, so here it is.**

**I remember when i done this chapter I managed to do it in a day so sorry if its a bit crap because of that.**

**Next chapter is almost finished. Now school has finished I now have time to sit down and watch the series so I can write them up, so it will be easier to get these chapters done. So yeah I am planning to get some more chapters out the way and types in the next few days. Without further delay here is chapter 3**

Disclaimer - I don't own Naruto but if I did there would be a few small things i may change.

It was a beautiful day in Konoha, the sun was shining and the birds were singing. Many young people were waking up early, for it was their first day as ninja.

One particular person waking up early, was Uzumaki Naruto. He slowly leaned up and yawned. He then stretched as far as he could. He was wearing a pair of plain light blue pyjamas and a black night-cap.

He started walking over to the table for breakfast when he noticed his calender, today was his induction day at 9am. He looked at this for a moment and broke into a huge grin.

'Today's a special day so...' He said while opening a cup of Ramen, 'Itadakimasu' and he ate and drank milk

After his meal, he got changed into his usual outfit, however as he was sorting out his jacket he noticed his headband neatly folded up on the dresser, he picked it up and put it on.

He then set off to the academy for his induction day. As he went he bumped into Konohamaru, laying in wait for a chance of an ambush

'I'll fight you!' He shouted as he jumped out behind the camouflaged sheet he had, but as he tried to attack, he tripped up over it.

'Ouch!' He'd fell flat on his face.

'What are you doing, Konohamaru?'

'Impressive, Naruto. It's what I'd expect from the man I rate highly.' Konohamaru said from the floor.

'I didn't do anything.'

Konohamaru stood up and made a hand sign, 'Let's have a fair fight!'

'Sorry but I've got my induction day.'

'Induction day?'

'I'm a ninja from today!' Naruto said proudly

Konohamaru noticed the leaf headband on this forehead and was shocked. Naruto simply smiled at his face.

Elsewhere in the village, Sakura was in her room. She had already changed and was just fixing up her hair and her headband. She winked at herself in the mirror

'Sakura, didn't you have to leave early today?' Her mum called from downstairs.

Sakura didn't want to be bothered at all, so she got angry at this and shouted down, 'I'm about to leave now!'

'Damn you! When will you stop treating me like a kid?' Sakura's inner self said.

As she walked down the street she thought, 'That's right. I'm no longer a student. I'm Haruno Sakura, a kunoichi of Konoha.

'I'll see you later!' A voice called from the entrance to a flower shop, and out walked a young girl with long blonde hair tied in a high ponytail.

She noticed Sakura walking up to her, but Sakura had stopped when she seen who it was. They stared at each other for what felt like ages when the other girl said 'Ohayou Sakura,'

'Ohayou, Ino.' Sakura replied and set off walking again and when she past Ino joined her.

'Who would have thought you'd manage to graduate?' Ino said nastily.

'The past is irrelevant. From today we're both fully-fledged ninja. I won't be beaten anymore.' She replied with a strong face and she walked on ahead a little faster.

Ino also walked just as fast, Sakura got pissed off at this and proceeded even faster. Ino caught up with her again and they carried on in this fashion till they were running.

Naruto had gotten to the Academy early so he was sitting there with a huge grin on his face. He was finally a ninja and he was enjoying it. There weren't many people here but Shikamaru walked past Naruto and seen him,

'Eh? Why are you here? Today's induction day is just for graduates.'

Naruto lifted up form his slouch over the table and pointed at his forehead, 'Can't you see this headband? I'm a ninja from today too!'

'Ok...' Shikamaru said sceptically

'I think the headband really suits me, you know..'

Across the classroom there was a girl who just started at Naruto, she was really pleased to see him here when she had thought he'd failed, 'So Naruto-kun was able to graduate!'

Sakura and Ino were neck and neck in the race to the classroom, they were constantly giving each other evil looks. They both slid the door open and struggled to squeeze through it. They both breathed heavily when they had got through the door.

'Looks like I won again.' Ino said smugly

'What? My foot was in the door ahead of yours by one centimetre.'

'That's your poor eyesight.

Naruto heard the commotion and looked up, he seen Sakura standing there and blushed, 'It's Sakura-chan' he thought.

Sakura looked around as Ino kept looking at her with a nasty look. She finally looked in Naruto's direction and he blushed even harder because she was looking at him and he started looking nervous, 'Sakura-chan's looking at me' he thought

Sakura ran over to him while Ino said 'Hey, Sakura!'

'Ohayou Sakura-chan!' Naruto said as she reached his row and waved at her but she pushed him out the way and said 'Out of my way.'

'Ohayou Sasuke-kun.' She said while blushing slightly.

The boy on the end of the row looked up and seen Sakura standing there, he looked at her with an unreadable look.

'Can I sit next to you?' She asked him

'Do you mind? I'm sitting next to him.' Ino said rushing over.

'It's whoever gets there first.'

'I entered the classroom ahead of you.'

Other girls started shouting 'I was first here, I should sit next to him.'

Sasuke, just looked away from the gathering of girls and, thought 'So irritating'

'Is this Sasuke Uchiha, this year's golden rookie?' one of the gathering ninja said from watching the Hokage's crystal ball.

'That's him.' The Hokage said.

'The surviving member of that Uchiha clan.' A kunoichi said

The Hokage just agreed and watched his ball

'Uzumaki Naruto..' A ninja with a mask thought

Naruto was still on the floor in pain. So he stood up and jumped on the table and stared very intently into Sasuke's eyes. Sasuke was also staring into Naruto's eyes, thinking what the hell is up with him.

They both groaned at each other as the gang of girls gave Naruto angry looks.

'Naruto, don't give Sasuke evils!' Sakura shouted over the loud chatter which had erupted.

Naruto looked up to see Sakura's face and then looked back at Sasuke. 'Sakura-chan... Everyone's going on about Sasuke. What's so great about him?' Naruto thought.

They were give each other such dirty looks that it was as if lightning was passing between them both.

The girls were cheering Sasuke on as they thought that a fight was going to break out.

A boy in the row in front was having a laugh and he accidentally pushed Naruto forward.

'Seriously. Oops, sorry.' He said as he turned around

The girls were speechless, they couldn't believe what was happening.

The push from the boy forced Naruto forwards and caused Naruto to land right on Sasuke's lips. Neither expected it and both had huge shocked eyes. They broke apart as fast as possible.

During this Sakura was so angry and heartbroken, she was really confused. 'Damn you! I was meant to have Sasuke's first ever kiss!'

They had broke apart and both made retching noises and held their throats as if it burned.

'I'll kill you, Naruto.' Sasuke threatened

'Was it my fault?' The boy who pushed Naruto said innocently

'I sense hatred.' Naruto said, he looked behind him to see an army of angry girls giving him evil looks.

'You...Naruto...' Sakura said with a vein throbbing in her head.

'It was an accident.' Naruto said holding his hands up in surrender.

Sakura cracked her knuckles and said 'You get on my nerves.'

Naruto became scared and worried by this.

The Hokage having seen the whole situation said, 'That Naruto... he's at the centre of commotion, as always.'

'Congratulations to you all, you're fully-fledged ninja from today. But you're still new, low-raking ninja, genin. The really hard part is yet to come. You'll now be put into groups of three and will carry out tasks under the supervision of a jonin' Iruka said at the font of the class, he'd noticed that Naruto was looking very beat up, something must have happened and he felt the need to quiz him about it later. Naruto opened his eyes at this, many other people looked surprised and worried at this.

'Groups of three?' A few people mumbled.

'I wonder who will end up in a group with Sasuke.' Ino said from behind Sakura.

'Who knows?' She said, 'Damn you! It's got to be me who goes into the same group as him!' Inner Sakura said.

Sasuke sighed, 'Groups of three... That'll be something else to hold me back.' He thought arrogantly.

'I'd like to be with Sakura, and as for the other person..' Naruto sat pondering for a minute about it, 'I don't mind as long as it's not Sasuke.'

'I've divided you up into groups so that they'll all be the same level.' Iruka held up some papers in his hand. 'The groups are as follows.'

'Next, group seven. Uzumaki Naruto,' Naruto looked up, 'Haruno Sakura,' Sakura looked disappointed and thought 'I'm with Naruto?' but Naruto stood up and shouted 'Yatta', 'And Uchiha Sasuke.' The roles were reversed and Sakura shouted 'Yatta' as Naruto thought, 'I'm with Sasuke?' and was disappointed in it.

The girl at the back who stared at Naruto before looked really disappointed and thought, 'I'm in a different group to Naruto..'

'Next, group eight. Hyuga Hinata. ' The girl looked up and answered hai, 'Inuzuka Kiba.' A boy with a furry hood and tattoos on his face smiled. 'Aburame Shino.' This boy wore a big jacket covering his mouth and small round black glasses.

Sakura turned round to Ino and made the peace sign with her hands as a taunt to her. Ino was mad at this, not only did she get Sasuke, she had to make fun of her too.

'Why does it end up like this?' Ino said.

'Damn you! True love triumphs!' Inner Sakura said while she maintained the pose.

'Why do women like someone like him?' Shikamaru said from one side of Ino.

'You can't even see that Shikamaru?'

'I'm not a woman, so..'

Ino looked at him for a second and said 'That's why you're not popular with girls. I wouldn't want to be in a group with you.'

'Group ten. Yamanaka Ino, Nara Shikamaru.' Ino took a deep breath in from shock and Shikamaru just smiled, 'well, it looks like you are.', 'And, Akamichi Choji' This was the boy who was always eating something.

Ino stressed slightly at this and thought, 'and a fatso to boot!'

'That's it' Iruka finished.

'Iruka-sensei, why is an outstanding student like me in the same group as him?' Naruto said while standing up n pointing at him.

'He got best marks among the graduates. And you, Naruto, the worst!' The class laughed at him, 'Since I tried to even out the abilities of each group, of course it ended up that way.'

'The best you can do is not to hinder me, loser.' Sasuke said.

Naruto was shaking in anger and he couldn't stop himself, 'What did you say?'

'Wanna fight, loser?'

'That's enough, Naruto!' Sakura said between the both of them

'I'll introduce you to the jonin after lunch.' Iruka said.

At lunch Sakura ran into the courtyard trying to find Sasuke, 'Where on earth has he gone?' Sakura said, 'I thought we could eat lunch together since we're in the same group.'

Naruto had caught up to Sakura and shouted 'Sakura-chan! Let's eat lunch together since we're in the same group.'

'Why should I have lunch with you?'

'Because... we're in the same group...'

'You get on my nerves.' and she walked off shouting, 'Sasuke-kun, where are you?'

Naruto headed off on his own and ended up on top of a nearby building.

'Damn it, this is so rubbish. I was pleased to be in the same group as her. I wish something good would happen.' Naruto said to himself.

When Naruto looked down, he saw Sasuke through the window of the building below.

The Naruto suddenly got a evil but great plan, 'I know..'

Nearby, Ino, Shikamaru and Choji were getting to know each other over lunch since they would be together for a while.

'Listen, now that we're in the same group, you've got to follow my instructions.' Ino said

'Yeah, yeah..' Shikamaru agreed, 'It's not worth the hassle of disagreeing with you.' he thought.

'Let's all go eat stir fry one time.' Choji suggested

'Oh, god' Ino faceplamed.

Shikamaru noticed Naruto sneaking up on Sasuke, 'Naruto?' he questioned. Ino turned around wondering what he was talking about and turned around quickly enough to see Naruto jump through the window and push Sasuke onto the floor. The wooden guard for the window fell and blocked all view of what happened but they could still hear voices.

'It's you, Naruto!' Sasuke shouted.

'Don't resist!' Naruto replied

'Naruto, I won't forgive you if you hurt Sasuke.' Ino said angrily.

There were sounds of a struggle but they suddenly stopped.

'What's happened?' Ino asked worriedly.

Inside however, Sasuke had managed to stop Naruto's ambush and tie him up and gagged him.

'What an idiot.' He said.

Sasuke opened the window and jumped out and smiled.

'Naruto went on the offensive and was beaten up himself.' Shikamaru said.

'Of course! How could Naruto compete with Sasuke?' Ino replied

Near the Academy, Sakura sat around under a covering of trees eating her lunch. 'No need to panic, We'll be in the same group all along from now. But.. I'd try to seduce him but my figure is below average. The only thing of mine that's above average is the width of my forehead. How could I..' Sakura thought intensely. However she had the feeling she was being watched so she looked up and saw Sasuke standing there watching her with a smile on his face.

'What? No way!' Sakura thought, she blushed slightly, 'Sasuke-kun is looking at me!'

She looked at his eyes and turned away slightly, 'And with such an intense stare.'

She suddenly had a scenario playing in her head, Sasuke had come up close to her and was talking to her.

'Your broad forehead is so cute,' Sasuke told her 'I find myself wanting to kiss it.'

Sakura blushed and said, 'That's what it exists for.'

Sakura stopped daydreaming and came down to reality, 'As of. I'm no longer a kid who believes such a fantasy could be real. It couldn't be real.'

However, Sakura was distracted from these thoughts as she heard Sasuke say, 'Your broad forehead is so cute.' She looked up shocked and looked at Sasuke now standing right by her, 'I find myself wanting to kiss it.'

Sakura stared at Sasuke, and she couldn't believe what she was hearing to be true. 'Result! Fantasy becomes reality!' Inner Sakura said.

'That's probably what Naruto would say.' Sasuke finished.

Sakura's hopes were dashed, she hung her head.

'I want to ask you something.' Sasuke said as he sat next to her on the bench, 'What do you think of Naruto?'

'He's perfected his role as saboteur of my love life and he's enjoying my suffering.' Sasuke looked at her with a slight hurt look on his face, Sakura carried on 'Naruto doesn't understand a single thing about me. He gets on my nerves.'

Sasuke gasped slightly at her comment.

'All I want is to be recognised by you, and you only.'

'You just want to be recognised by me?' Sasuke repeated.

Sakura blushed, 'I would do anything in order to achieve that.' She leaned in to give him a small kiss. Sasuke's heart started to beat faster.

Back at the place where Naruto had ambushed Sasuke and was caught himself, Sasuke was tied up as Naruto was.

'I let my guard down.' Sasuke thought.

Sasuke thought of how it happened to him. Naruto had performed Kawarimi no jutsu and left behind a log. Around where Sasuke had stood, multiple Narutos jumped on him and said 'Gotcha', this had led to Naruto capturing him. 'He couldn't do the simple bunshin no jutsu before and now he's adept at Kage bunshin no jutsu..'

Sakura was slowly closing in on the Naruto-Sasuke.

'This means everything to me.'

Naruto-Sasuke blushed slightly and thought, 'I feel that, at last, I've understood why I like Sakura.' and he slowly leaned in himself. Just before they were about to kiss, Naruto-Sasuke's stomach started churning and making strange noises. He gripped his stomach as if to hold it in.

'Diarrhoea now?' he thought, he quickly ran off to the shout of Sakura saying 'What's wrong?'

Naruto-Sasuke answered back, 'Back in a minute!'

'Sasuke-kun is so shy... Maybe he needs to prepare himself emotionally.' Sakura said quietly.

Naruto-Sasuke only just managed to get to the toilet before his jutsu ended and he returned to normal.

'Phew, that was close! The stomach cramps nearly caused my disguise to come undone!' He said while wiping sweat from his forehead. 'Why do I get an upset stomach at such a good moment?'

'"He gets on my nerves" she said it again.' He thought, 'It's a shame, I was able to get close to Sakura at last.'

'Right! I'm going to turn into an unpleasant Sasuke and make Sakura dislike him!' Naruto said with a mischievous grin on his face

Meanwhile Sakura was still sitting where she was waiting for Sasuke to return. Her face lit up when she saw Sasuke walking towards her.

'Sasuke-kun, you're so shy! Have you prepared your heart? I'm all ready to go!' Sasuke had walked past her before she realised it and turned around to see him and said, 'Wait. Sasuke-kun?'

Sasuke turned around to look at Sakura with an annoyed look on his face, 'How about Naruto?' he asked.

'You're changing the subject again. You can forget about Naruto! He always bothering you. It's because he didn't have a decent upbringing.' Sasuke started looking around not really listening to Sakura, hoping to find some trial Naruto left. 'He doesn't have any parents, does he?' Sakura said.

This struck a nerve in Sasuke and he glared at Sakura with an angry look, 'He's always doing just as he pleases. If I was like that I'd get told off by my parents but he's all on his own so nobody nags him so that's why his selfishness always shows.' Sasuke's eyes were full of pain.

'Loneliness... is on a totally different level to feeling sad because you've been told off by your parents.' Sasuke said without turning round.

'What's got into you?' Sakura asked.

'You get on my nerves.' Sakura's eyes widened, she didn't want to believe that Sasuke hated her, and as Sasuke walked away, she was left standing there all alone.

'Goddamn it! It's finally settled down. I wonder if she'll still be waiting.' Naruto said from his cubical. He ran out the door and down the hall and ran straight into Sasuke. He screamed through shock and skidded to a halt just in front of him.

'Wh..Why are you here?' Naruto asked.

'Nawanuke no Jutsu – it's the most basic of basics.' Sasuke replied with an amused tone to his voice, 'What are you trying to do by becoming me?' His eyes narrowed.

'I just did it because I thought it would be fun!' He jumped back and transformed into multiple Narutos.

'Kage bunshin no jutsu again!' Sasuke said

'I'll force you to recognise that I'm in fact great by defeating you! Get ready, Sasuke!' The Narutos said.

As he was about to land, their stomachs started churning again, 'It's my stomach again, I need the toilet!' they said.

Sasuke was stood there, wondering what the hell was going on as the Narutos fought over who would be first to the toilet. 'I'm first! It's going to be too late in a second!'

Sasuke then walked away thinking 'What an idiot.'

Sakura was still sat on the bench she was before thinking over what Sasuke thought, '"You get on my nerves", so this is how Naruto felt too'

'Maybe I can be a bit nicer to him next time.' she said out loud.

'Damn it.' Just that moment Naruto walked by holding his stomach, 'Did I eat something bad?'

Sakura looked at him for a second, 'Come on, smile..' Sakura thought, and her face twisted into a very odd smile.

She stood up and waved at Naruto and asked him, 'Are you coming back to class?

'Sakura-chan?' Naruto questioned. He noticed the forced smile on Sakura and thought, 'I see. Sasuke's disguised himself as Sakura to get back at me.'

'You're trying to trick me! I won't fall for it!' He was about to perform a jutsu but as he did his stomach hurt again, 'Ouch, ouch, ouch! What's going on?' and he ran off to the bathroom again.

Sakura was very angry about this, she tried being nice and he just ran off, 'I hate that stupid boy!' She shouted.

The Hokage had made a visit to Naruto's home while he was busy, along with him was the masked ninja.

'So this is Naruto's house.' The other ninja said.

'Sasuke from that Uchiha clan is also in the group you're in charge of. I wish you luck.' The Hokage said.

The Ninja picked up the carton of milk Naruto had drunk from that morning and looked at it, 'This milk is long past the best-before date' He said and shook it, 'You'd get an upset stomach if you drank this. I can see trouble ahead.'

This was the third time Naruto was on the toilet and he just randomly shouted, 'What the hell is going on?'

_List of Jutsu used in this Chapter_

_Kawarimi no jutsu – Substitution jutsu_

_Kage bunshin no jutsu – Shadow clone jutsu_

_Nawanuke no Jutsu – Escape jutsu_

**So that's it for another chapter. Oh btw, Happy Birthday to Neji Hyuuga, who I don't really like because he can be a bit of a douche, but I'm polite, so happy birthday **


	4. 004: The Trial! Survival Training

**Hey guys. It's saturday, so you know the drill, it's update time. Nothing's really happened this week of importance so onward with the story**

Disclaimer - I don't own Naruto and never will

After lunch the genin returned to the classroom waiting to meet their jonin. Some jonin were already there waiting and took their group with them to get acquainted elsewhere. There were only a few groups left now and they talked between themselves until their jonin arrived.

Finally there were only Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke left waiting. Iruka left because he was needed elsewhere and said that their jonin would be along shortly.

'He's really late.' Naruto said out of boredom and started pacing again. Sasuke was sat down in a seat and Sakura was leaning against a table.

While Naruto paced he went towards the door, he slid it open a fraction to look out up and down the hall.

'Naruto, just sit down!' Sakura told him.

'Yeah, but how come our sensei is the only one that's late? The other classes have met their sensei and gone off. Iruka sensei's gone too.' He replied over his shoulder

'I've no idea.' Sakura said looking down, but when she heard a noise she looked up and asked, 'What are you up to, Naruto?'

Sasuke heard to commotion and looked over, he seen Naruto standing on a stool giggling to himself putting a chalk board eraser between the door and the frame so when their sensei came it would fall on him.

'That's what he gets for coming late.' He replied jumping down.

The chalk board eraser sat there quite happily, never wobbled for an instant and was well balanced.

'I'm having nothing to do with it.' She said disappointed but honestly she loved pranks like this, she just wanted to look cool in front of Sasuke, who just grunted at this and looked away.

'You think an elite Jonin would fall for a trick like that?' He asked not really caring about the answer but he wanted them to shut up, so he asked anyway. His plan, however, didn't work.

'Yeah, no way. You're an idiot, Naruto.' Sakura agreed in a haughty tone.

A hand was placed on the door and all three genin were anxiously waiting in anticipation to see what would happen.

The door opened and a tall spikey silver haired man with a mask leant in as the eraser fell and bounced off his head, filling the air around him in a cloud of dust.

Naruto burst in a fit of laughter and pointed at him, 'Gotcha, haha.'

The Jonin just stood there looking at them with dust in his hair.

Sakura stood there looking very innocent and said, 'Sorry, Sensei. I tried to stop him, but he wouldn't listen.' But inside she thought of how good of a hit it was.

Sasuke just stared at him in disbelief, 'He really fell for it? He can't be a real Jonin.' he thought.

The Jonin walked in a picked up the fallen eraser and stared at it for a moment and then looked back at the three of them clustered together.

'How shall I put this?' He said rubbing his chin, closing one of his eyes as his ninja headband slanted down and covered the other. 'You're not giving me a very good first impression.'

The three looked like Christmas was never going to come. They looked so depressed because of their rejection.

The Jonin motioned them to follow him with an emotionless face, and they did. Following him to the top of a nearby building. They sat down on the stairs as The Jonin walked ahead and leaned again the metal railing in front of them.

'Right then, let's start with introducing yourselves.' He said, even with the cloth on his face masking his mouth movements, it didn't affect the volume of his voice.

'Introduce ourselves? What are we supposed to say?' Sakura asked.

'Well...' He said thinking and then started gesturing with his hands, 'Start with likes and dislikes, dreams for the future, hobbies. That kind of thing.'

'Yeah, but...why don't we start with you telling us about yourself, sensei?' Naruto said, not fully understanding what he was meant to do but he didn't want to admit it out loud.

'Me? Well, my name is Hatake Kakashi. I don't feel like revealing anything else to you. My dreams for the future? I have a few hobbies.' He said.

Sakura turned towards Naruto and Sasuke and said, 'That got us nowhere. All he told us was his name.'

Naruto nodded as Kakashi said, 'Right, your turn. Let's start with you.' He looked towards Naruto.

Naruto twitched in excitement, 'Me! I'm called Uzumaki Naruto. I love cup Ramen, but my favourite thing is the Ramen that Iruka-sensei brings me from Ichiraku's Ramen. I hate having to wait three minutes before I can eat my cup Ramen. My hobbies are trying different flavours of cup Ramen!' Kakashi looked at Naruto, he seemed to wonder if Ramen was all this boy could think about until..

'And my dream for the future is to become the greatest Hokage! Then I'll get respect from everyone in the whole village.'

Kakashi's eyes widened slightly, 'I see. We've got a live wire here.' he thought, but surely this kid must know that with the Kyuubi inside of him there is no way that the village would accept him. He quickly regained control and continued.

This time he looked at Sakura, 'Right, next!'

'My name is Haruno Sakura.' She said animatedly, 'Things I like...erm.. There's a certain person that I'm fond of...' She looked expectantly at Sasuke, who was unmoving, 'And my hobby is... My dream for the future is...' and she squealed in excitement.

'And? Any dislikes?' He asked.

'I dislike Naruto!' She said, to Naruto's utter disappointment.

Kakashi sighed and rested his head on his hand. 'Girls her age are more interested in boys than in ninjutsu' he thought, but she could be useful in a fight.

'Last one!' He shouted out.

Sakura looked at Sasuke with a smile on her face and giggled.

Sasuke was hunched up with his hands in front of his mouth but it didn't hinder the little words he spoke.

'I'm Uchiha Sasuke. I have many dislikes. And I don't particularly like anything.'

Sakura looked disappointed on hearing this. Sasuke's eyes narrowed even further than usual.

'And I prefer to say that I have "ambitions" rather than "dreams". My ambitions are to restore my clan and to kill a certain someone.'

Everyone fell silent then, all but Kakashi stared at him flabbergasted at his comment.

'I hope he doesn't mean me.' Naruto thought looking at him apprehensively.

'Sasuke-kun is so cool!' Thought Sakura.

'Just as I thought.' Kakashi stared at Sasuke through glaring eyes.

'Right, then. You're three very unique and interesting characters! Our first mission starts tomorrow.' Kakashi said to the three of them, while still sitting on the railing.

Naruto stopped glaring at Sasuke and sat up straight. He saluted at Kakashi and asked, 'What's the mission, sir?'

'Firstly, it's a task that the four of us will carry out together.'

'What is it? What is it? What is it?' Naruto asked over and over, excited and impatiently.

'It's a survival exercise.' He said opening his recently closed eyes.

'A survival exercise?' Naruto repeated.

'But an exercise isn't exactly a real mission. We've already done plenty of exercises at the Academy.' Sakura complained.

'This is no ordinary exercise.' Kakashi said growing tired.

'So, what kind of exercise is it then, exactly?' Naruto asked curiously.

Kakashi quietly started laughing, to the Genin, he didn't seem the type who would easily laugh, so it scared them a little. Soon his evil laughter grew louder and louder.

'What's so funny, Sensei?' Sakura said getting slightly angry.

'Well, you're not going to like it if I tell you that!' He said eyes smiling, as they couldn't see his face, they didn't know if he smiled but his eyes showed that he was.

Naruto looked confused at him, he had no idea what what he meant by that but he quickly explained, 'Of the 27 graduates that have come here, only 9 will be accepted as Genin. The remaining 18 will have to return to the Academy. In other words, this exercise is extremely difficult and has a 66% failure rate.'

They all looked at him as if he was mad, but when they realised he was telling the truth they became nervous and angry.

'I told you, you wouldn't like it!'

'That's crazy! We've worked really hard to get here! What was the graduation test for, then?' Naruto complained.

They were silent, a bird called above them, until he finally answered, 'Oh, that? That was just to select those suitable for Genin training.'

'What?' Naruto exclaimed angrily, all that hard work he had put in was going to be for nothing, the amount of kage bunshins he had made was brushed away like it was nothing.

'That's how it is. Tomorrow I decide whether you pass or fail. We meet at 5:00am. And bring your ninja equipment!' He called out to the three Genin.

Naruto shook with worry and determination, 'There's no way I'm going to be weeded out! I'll show them how good I am! For sure!' He thought while the shaking slowly increased.

Sakura also shook slightly but for other reasons, 'If I fail the test, I'll be separated from Sasuke-kun! This is a trail of love!' She was more worried about losing Sasuke than failing at being a genin.

Even the stone-faced Sasuke showed signs of nervousness and anticipation while his hands rapidly shook.

During this time Kakashi had turned away from them and with a wave of his hand said 'OK. You're dismissed.' Then he remembered something and looked over his shoulder, 'Oh, and you'd better skip breakfast, or else you'll puke.'

Everyone's eyes widened in shock and started to worry about how intense this survival exercise was going to be.

The next morning, just before the sun rose, the Genin made their way to the meeting point. Both Naruto and Sakura wearily made their way there as they rubbed sleep from their eyes.

'Morning' Sakura said to everyone, whereas Naruto just groaned.

Sasuke was wide awake and ready for action. He stared at the his other team members and sighed, this is going to be bad if they can't even stay awake.

They waited and waited, the sun had rose and it was getting closer to mid-morning when Kakashi finally appeared.

'Morning, everyone.' He said in mid-wave.

'Hey, you're so late!' Sakura and Naruto shouted at him.

Pointing behind him he replied, 'Well, a black cat went and crossed my path back there, so...' He seen the looks he was given from his students and he loudly coughed, 'Right, then.'

He put down his bag and put a clock down on a tree stump and set the alarm.

'Right, it's set for 12 noon.' He then picked up a pair of bells and held them so they could see, 'Your assignment for today is to steal these bells from me by noon.' He gave them a shake so they rung out, 'If you fail to steal them, you forfeit your lunch! You'll be tied to those posts and forced to watch me eat my lunch.'

They all sadly and hungrily stared at him, Sakura trying to hide the rumbling coming from their stomachs as she tried to silence it.

'But he told us not to eat breakfast' Sasuke thought.

'So that's why.' Sakura sighed to herself.

Trying to distract herself from the need of food she looked at the bells, 'Hang on a second. Why are there only two bells?'

Kakashi smiled knowingly at her, 'That way one of you will end up tied to the post. That person will fail the exercise and return to the Academy. At least one of you will fail. Or maybe all three of you will fail. You may use your shuriken. If you are not prepare to kill me, you'll never be able to take the bells.' He clenched his fist around them bells.

Sakura complained, 'But that's dangerous, sensei.'

'Yeah, especially as you failed to dodge the blackboard rubber!' Naruto laughed.

Kakashi looked at him, 'It's always the chatterboxes that fail such exercises. They're always the losers.'

Naruto looked at him angrily.

'Start when I give the signal.'

Naruto kept staring furiously at Kakashi as the words he spoke kept repeating in his head. He quickly pulled out a kunai from his pouch, spun it around his middle finger, grabbed it as the kunai tip faced downwards and started racing towards him. As Sakura and Sasuke failed to stop him out of shock.

Before Naruto could do anything he felt a hand on his kunai hand and to the amazement of the fellow genin, it was pulled behind his head so if he did attack with the kunai it would go through the back of his head. Kakashi's hand placed on his head to stop him from struggling, and a cloud of dust gathered at the pairs feet as Kakashi had moved that fast.

'Take it easy, son. I haven't given the signal yet.'

Naruto tried to fight back but was overpowered as small grunts came from his mouth as he struggled.

Sakura and Sasuke both took steps back to get away from Kakashi, they were genuinely scared of him. Naruto was left go and he quickly massaged him arm because of the tension which had been put on it. Luckily it wasn't serious.

'Wow, he's so fast I never saw him move.' Sakura thought staring in disbelief.

Sasuke's eyes narrowed in suspicion, 'He really is Jonin.' He admitted to himself

'But you did come at me with full killing energy.' Kakashi chuckled slightly as he looked at each of his students faces, 'You know what? I'm starting to like you guys. Let's get started.'

The three Genin got into a ready stance and reluctantly waited for Kakashi's signal

'Ready? Start!' He shouted as his team leapt away from him in search of a place to hide, formulate a plan and to find an opening to attack.

Back in the village, Iruka and The Hokage were having some tea and discussing a few things.

'What is it you wanted to see me about?' The Hokage asked Iruka slowly and wisely, 'You didn't come just to drink tea with me, did you?'

'It's about the Jonin assigned to Naruto's group. What kind of a sensei is he? Is he very strict?' He asked softly.

'You mean Kakashi? Are you concerned about him?'

'It's just that I heard rumours about him.' He said anxiously.

The Hokage conveniently pulled out a small book from his robes.

'What's this?' Iruka asked.

'This book contains a list of all the Genin trainees assigned to Kakashi.'

Iruka gasped slightly and leaned over to pick it up, he said 'With you permission' as he did. The Hokage allowed him to take it and read through it.

Iruka's eyes widened on the first page and with every line read it kept getting worse and worse.

'Surely not...' He stuttered.

Back in the training grounds, Kakashi was standing in the middle of a large expanse of grass with a steady river flowing nearby. It would have been a peaceful place if the ninja weren't training nearby.

He carefully looked around him, looking for his Genin.

'A ninja must be able to conceal his movements and hide effectively.' He thought as he checked each and every nook and cranny but he couldn't easily find them.

Sasuke was crouched in a tree with a branch to hide his body as his eyes popped over the top to scan his surroundings. Sakura had a similar idea but was lying flat on the floor covered by a bush but still being able to see below the plant.

'Well, they've hidden themselves well enough.' He said quietly and scratched the back on his head. He looked up and was slightly surprised at what he saw.

Naruto was standing in front of him in full view with his arms crossed, and if he wasn't conspicuous enough, he then shouted at Kakashi.

'Come on, me against you, right now!'

Kakashi confused, looked at him strangely, as if trying to figure something out.

'What an idiot he is!' Sasuke groaned out loud.

'Know what? You're the weirdest one of the lot.' Kakashi told Naruto.

'The only weird thing here is your haircut!' Naruto snapped back before he ran towards him yet again.

Kakashi just calmly reached into his pouch reaching for something and Naruto instinctively stopped, not wanting something like before to happen again, and then took a quick step back, waiting for Kakashi to make the first move.

'Let's start with Ninja Battlefield Strategies, part one. Taijutsu.' Kakashi said as he started to pull the object out the pouch.

Naruto stared at him in shock, 'Taijutsu? That's hand-to-hand combat, isn't it? And he's reaching for a weapon!' He thought enraged.

The object was pulled out and was flipped open, it was a book called 'icha icha paradise'. The reason why he pulled out such a book was beyond Naruto and he stared at Kakashi dumb-foundedly.

'What are you waiting for? Make your move!' Kakashi said impatiently.

'But how come you're reading a book?' Naruto asked.

'Why? To find out what happens in the story, of course.' He said not looking up from the book in question. 'Don't let it bother you. With you as my opponent, I can carry on reading.'

Naruto's hand clenched in anger. He once again rushed forward shouting 'I'm going to crush you!' at the top of his lungs, pupils so small you could hardly see them through rage.

He pushed off the ground and leapt at Kakashi screaming as he went. His punch he had held ready was blocked with a simple wave of his hand. Naruto landed and quickly kicked around his torso area doing a roundhouse kick, which Kakashi simply ducked down as the kick flew overhead, never once did his eyes leave the page.

Knowing that his sensei was now where he wanted him, Naruto landed and pushed off directing all his power into one fist, aiming straight for Kakashi, but his fist never made contact even though it was hovering right where Kakashi had been.

He stared at his fist in disbelief, 'How did I not hit him?' He thought.

Kakashi had managed to slip behind Naruto before he made contact but Naruto had never thought about that and when Kakashi spoke he flinched slightly.

'Idiot. A ninja must never let an enemy get behind him.'

He was crouched at Naruto's eye level. Kakashi had closed his book and had also formed a hand sign.

Sakura quickly noticed this and became slightly fearful, 'He's using a hand sign to focus his energy. It's the Tiger Mudra. No way! He can't use such deadly ninja techniques against Naruto.' She thought, but she didn't know her sensei well and for all she knew he easily could do it. She couldn't risk it.

'That mudra is used for Katon no jutsu. He's not just toying with Naruto, he means it.' Sasuke worried.

'Naruto, get out of there! He's going to die!' Sakura stood up out of her hiding place and shouted.

Naruto heard the commotion and looked at Sakura confused.

'You're too slow.' Kakashi said, 'Konohagakure Hiden Taijutsu Oogi' He thrust his fingers forward in the same hand sign position.

Naruto's face contorted in pain as Kakashi pushed his fingers in Naruto's backside and forced him to fly through the air and towards the river. 'Sennen Goroshi'

'What? That wasn't a ninjutsu at all.' Sakura mumbled to herself, while Sasuke sweat-dropped and groaned, 'Those two are total idiots.'

As Naruto landed with a huge splash, Kakashi opened his book again, 'Where was I?' He asked no one in particular.

Sasuke readied himself as he was about to use the opening he made to attack from afar with this shuriken and kunai.

Sakura thought sceptically, 'That's got to be against the rules! We can't possibly match his strength.'

Naruto slowly and limply fell deeper and deeper into the depths of the river, he uncontrollably let out air from his lungs with a glug. 'Damn it! It's not going to end like this.' He would have said if he was out of the water so instead he thought it. He managed to regain his composure and started to swim to the surface of the water.

Before Sasuke could even grab his weapons he saw two shurikens fly out from the water's surface, surprisingly Naruto had the same idea as he had. Sakura was shocked that Naruto was doing what he was doing attacking their sensei with dangerous weapons, she didn't want to hurt anyone.

The two shurikens came curving around to reach Kakashi. They were flying at unbelievable speed towards him but just as quickly Kakashi lifted his hand up and caught them both in each hole with a finger each, yet again eye never leaving his book. They spun around his fingers still from the momentum they had gained with soaring in the air until the limply fell down his fingers with a slight tinkle.

Sasuke halted his movement to reach for his shurikens when he saw how easily he had managed to stop them and instead reached down to steady himself on the tree branch.

'Sure not. This is even worse than the rumours!' Iruka said out of worry for the three Genin currently training but most of all for Naruto. He couldn't believe his finding about Kakashi.

The Hokage calmly looked at Iruka and wisely said 'Kakashi's tests may be more difficult than the others.'

'More difficult?' Iruka said looking up, 'But he's never passed a single student!'

The Hokage picked up his tea about to have a sip but though better of it and replied, 'True. Not a single student has passed Kakashi's test. They were all eliminated.' He ended dramatically.

On the battlefield, while Kakashi was distracted with the shurikens, Naruto pulled himself onto the bank of the river and started coughing and trying to get air back into his lungs.

'What are you doing?' Kakashi asked looking up from his book at Naruto while he lay sprawled on the bank, 'You won't get any lunch unless you take the bell by 12 noon.'

'I know! You told us already!' Naruto complained.

'For someone who's going to surpass The Hokage, you're looking pretty shabby.' Kakashi sighed.

Naruto's stomach growled loud after which he shouted, 'Damn you! How do you expect me to fight on an empty stomach?'

Across the plain of grass, in the hiding places of Sasuke and Sakura, their stomachs also gave out a loud grumble.

'I missed out on last night's dinner too. That was a big mistake, going on a diet!' Sakura thought punishing herself with hindsight.

'So you caught me off guard back there!' Naruto shouted at Kakashi, who didn't believe the boy was worth his time and started wandering off. 'Damn it! I'm so hungry, I don't have any strength. But I won't let that stop me getting one of the bells. I'll find the strength to do whatever it takes to pass' He spoke out loud but to nobody in particular but glaring at Kakashi, knowing that the Jonin could hear him even at the distance he had put between them. 'I'm not going to be sent back to the Academy!'

The almost still water behind him started to waver and move.

'I will become a ninja!' He shouted as six kage bunshins came shooting out the water.

Kakashi turned around in interest and saw the bunshins flying towards him, faces contorted with rage.

'You're over-confident! Here comes my best Tajuu Kage Bunshin no jutsu!'

Sakura stared in amazement, he couldn't even make one bunshin during the graduation test, but here right in front of her were more than just one. 'There are seven Narutos?' She watched as they ran across the expanse of grass in front of her. She blinked, 'They're not images, they're real. How come...'

Sasuke also stared in amazement, he didn't know that Naruto could do something like this, he just ignored Naruto's existence half the time.

Kakashi also stared at the bunshins coming towards him but only with mild interest. As if he were figuring out the answer to a riddle.

'Are they bunshins or kage bunshins?' He asked himself. He thought back to what he had heard about Naruto recently and to the amount of kage bunshins he had formed at that time. So it was possible that it would be kage bunshins.

'That's a kinjutsu and he used it to defeat Mizuki.' He thought.

Kakashi stood there surrounded in front of him by a semi-circle of Naruto bunshins, he had also put the book away, as things may start to get interesting now.

'I don't reckon you'll be able to hold the jutsu for longer than a minute.' He said as three Naruto's stared running towards him. 'You're all mouth, Naruto. You're still the worst student. You can't defeat me with this jutsu.'

The bells jingled as something flew into the back of him. It was human sized of a small boy. 'What? Behind me?' Kakashi said out of shock. An eighth Naruto had grabbed him from behind as the other seven were still running towards him.

Both Sasuke and Sakura could nothing but stare at the scene occurring in front of them, Kakashi, and elite, a Jonin, had been tricked Naruto, the worst student ever.

Kakashi's eyes widened when he realised it was Naruto, while all the Naruto could do was giggle.

'Didn't you say, "A ninja must never let an enemy get behind him"?' He said gleefully. The other six Naruto's all held his legs to hold him in place so he didn't just dodge like he did last time. The other was in mid-air readying for an attack.

'I had one of my clones sneak out of the river and creep up behind you.' He explained from behind as Kakashi struggled to escape.

The Naruto in the air shouted as he attacked, 'This is for sticking me in the backside before!'

'Naruto's really getting in there!' Sakura thought.

'Nice Diversionary tactic.' Thought Sasuke.

Naruto had a punch held back and using the force of gravity increased the strength of the punch. Just before the collision Naruto shouted, 'I'm going to give you an almighty punch!'

The attack collided and a small amount of blood sprayed from the body, the amount of a bloody nose or a bust lip.

When Naruto looked he saw that his bunshin was in fact holding onto another bunshin and he had hit himself. The force of the punch had sent the three of them flying. He stared in confusion at the Naruto he had just hit.

'So, Naruto was the one..that got punched.' Sakura said staring confused at what had just happened.

The bunshins landed on their backs and the one who was punched said 'That hurt.'

Naruto stood there staring at the pair on the floor, 'That means you are..' He said trying to work something out, 'You are Kakashi-sensei!' He accused, 'You transformed yourself into me!'

All the bunshins started attacking each other as they didn't know who the so-called imposter was.

'You're Kakashi-sensei! Take that! You smell like Kakashi-sensei! You smell like an old man! You smell like him!' They shouted blindly as they pushed them bunshins away.

'Anyway, let's try to undo the jutsu, then there'll be just two of us left. Then we'll know who's who!' One of them suggested.

'Should've thought of that sooner!' He said. 'Why didn't you think of it, you fool?' One shouted at him.

Naruto undid the jutsu and found he was standing all by himself. Kakashi didn't transform into him and he was now all beaten up because of his mistake.

Sakura stared at him, 'Naruto...you're such an idiot!' She thought.

'He caught you out with a Kawarimi no jutsu.' Sasuke looked at him with a sense of superiority, he wouldn't have been fooled by that. 'With this jutsu, you quickly switch your body with that of an object or animal. Thus, you force your enemy to attack it, thinking that it's you.' He recalled, 'In this case, the Jonin let himself get caught and switched bodies with one of Naruto's bunshins. Naruto then thought he was attacking Kakashi-sensei, but he was just hitting himself.' Sasuke observed, from his vantage point.

On the ground, Naruto's eye was caught by a glint in the grass and by closer inspection, it turned out it was a bell.

'A bell!' He cried happily, 'He must have dropped it in the attack.' He then started running up to it before somebody else picked it up.

Before he actually managed to touch it, he felt a pulling on his leg, and then next thing he knew he was hanging upside down from the tree above.

'What the hell?' he shouted waving his arms as he bounced from side to side.

'Of course it was a trap!' Sasuke looked at him, he really wished that Naruto would fail right then, at least if he did then Sasuke wouldn't have to deal with him. 'But that Jonin doesn't let his guard down even when he's fighting a fool like Naruto.' He said glaring at Naruto.

'My bell!' He shouted struggling to reach it and grab it. He then seen a hand pick it up and realised that Kakashi had returned to the scene.

'Think before you use such a jutsu, otherwise the enemy may use it against you.' He said leaning back up, 'And if the bait is so obvious, don't take it, you idiot.' He threw the bell up and caught it as he spoke.

This annoyed Naruto, he wasn't an idiot, he was just caught off-guard.

'A ninja must see through deception.'

'I know, I know! I get it!' Naruto shouted angrily as the blood rushed to his head.

'I'm telling you, because you obviously don't get it! Your technique is all over the place.'

Sasuke seen that Kakashi had finally let his guard down. 'Now's my chance!' He thought as he readied his weapons. He quickly noted Kakashi's position and distance from him and then threw multiple kunai and shuriken. They curved around to hit him from the sides.

'Won't you ever learn?' Kakashi said to Naruto as the projectiles flew towards him, he blindly didn't see them coming towards him as they went stabbing him all along his right side of the body.

Sakura both heard the noise as they hit him and the sight of him being thrown off balance as they hit and loudly gasped as he was falling it the floor.

Naruto being right in front of Kakashi started rapidly looking around in alarm. 'You hit him! Sasuke, you've gone too far!' He shouted waving him arms.

It seemed to take forever for Kakashi to land, as blood spurted from his wounds.

_List of Jutsu used in this Chapter_

_Katon no jutsu – Fire jutsu_

_Konohagakure Hiden Taijutsu Oogi - Konohagakure's Most Secret and Sacred Technique_

_Sennen Goroshi - One Thousand Years of Death_

_Tajuu Kage Bunshin no jutsu – Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu_

_Kage Bunshin – Shadow clone_

_Bunshin – Clone_

_Kinjutsu – Forbidden Techniques_

_Kawarimi no jutsu – Substitution jutsu_

**Please review and tell me what you think, every review is greatly appreciated, thank you.**


	5. 005: Failure Kakashi's Conclusion

**Well it's time for another chapter, today's is late because today is Lady Tsunade's birthday, so happy birthday.**

**So yeah, I've been having trouble getting chapters for this written out before the update day. I do it but I don't manage to get other chapters done incase i couldn't be finished by the update day. I shall try to fix this over the next few weeks**

Disclaimer - I don't own Naruto

Kakashi reached down to pick up the fallen bell which had been used as a trap against Naruto who was now hanging upside down to a tree by his feet with the use of a rope.

'Think before you use such a jutsu, otherwise the enemy may use it against you.' He said leaning back up, 'And if the bait is so obvious, don't take it, you idiot.' He bounced the bell up and caught it on the way back down as he spoke.

This annoyed Naruto, he wasn't an idiot, he was just caught off-guard. Naruto was overcome with rage and started struggling against his restraints but only managing to swing him slightly around.

'A ninja must see through deception.'

'I know, I know! I get it!' Naruto shouted down angrily at him hoping that if he said that he may be let down, blood rushed to his head

'I'm telling you, because you obviously don't get it! Your technique is all over the place.'

Sasuke seen that Kakashi had finally let his guard down. 'Now's my chance!' He thought as he readied his weapons. He quickly noted Kakashi's position and distance from him and then threw multiple kunai and shuriken. They curved around to hit him from the sides.

'Won't you ever learn?' Kakashi said to Naruto as the projectiles flew towards him, he blindly didn't see them coming towards him as they went stabbing him all along his right side of the body.

Sakura both heard the noise as they hit him and the sight of him being thrown off balance as they hit and loudly gasped as he was falling it the floor.

Naruto being right in front of Kakashi started rapidly looking around in alarm. 'You hit him! Sasuke, you've gone too far!' He shouted waving him arms.

It seemed to take forever for Kakashi to land, as blood spurted from his wounds but before he did land the body of Kakashi transformed into a log from a nearby tree. He must have performed Kawarimi no jutsu. The log loudly fell to the floor and seemed to echo through the battlefield.

Sasuke started quickly rushing away from his hiding spot elsewhere, 'Oh, no! Substitution trick! Now he knows where I am! Gotta move fast!'

With the speed of his movement a tree branch vibrated as he ran. 'He lowered his guard on purpose...And I fell for it!' He cursed himself.

In a nearby shrub, Kakashi was waiting for when Sasuke would pass by. 'So that's where he is.' He muttered to himself. He reached once again in his pouch as the bells on his hip jingled.

Sakura had also started running from the scene to find Sasuke leaving Naruto all alone. 'Sasuke-kun...where'd you go? Don't tell me Sensei found you! No! He can't capture my Sasuke-kun! I won't let him' She thought concerned as she ran along the forest floor keeping to large bushes for protection. She had reached a mini drop to a lower level of the forest where she saw Kakashi standing reading the same book he was before.

'He didn't hear me. I'm safe!' Sakura gasped from the running.

'Sakura, look behind you.'

Sakura yelped a little in surprise and turned to see Kakashi's face behind her. She screamed loudly.

'"A ninja must see through deception." Yeah, yeah. How am I supposed to do that? I won't fall for these traps again!' Naruto said as he reached into his kunai pouch and pulled one out, he used it to cut the rope holding his legs together and landed neatly on the floor. Naruto smiled as he managed to get out the trap only for another trap to activate and trap his left leg and hang him upside down from the tree again. 'I fell for it! Again!' He shouted as he was pulled up once again.

Kakashi formed a hand sign and suddenly leaves were pulled up around Sakura blocking Kakashi from view. Sakura looked dazed as the jutsu took effect. The leaves flew up in the sky around Sakura in a swirl. They soon disappeared leaving Sakura all on her own in a large expanse of land.

She blinked a few times and snapped out of the daze, 'What was that?' She said as she repeatedly looked either way 'Where is Sensei? What was it? What's going on?' She jabbered on as she started to panic.

'Sakura...' A voice called from behind a tree.

'Sasuke-kun?' She turned around cheerfully only to find her worst nightmare.

Sasuke was leaning again the tree on his knees with multiple kunai sticking out of him and blood gushing from his wounds.

'Sa...Sakura...Help me...please...' Sakura stared at him in shock and let out a few tears until he threw her hands up and screamed in terror. She fell backwards and passed out.

On a tree nearby, Kakashi was watching the scene while reading his book.

'I think I overdid it a bit...But she's gotta learn to see through these things.' He thought.

Nearby Sasuke heard the scream from Sakura and turned to face the direction it came from. 'Sounded like...Sakura?' He thought becoming slightly concerned.

Bells chimed as behind Sasuke, Kakashi appeared.

'Ninja Battle Skill number two. Genjutsu. Sakura studied it in class, but she still couldn't see it coming.'

'Genjutsu. Just simple mind control. Sakura would fall for it. But... I'm not like Sakura and Naruto.' Sasuke replied boldly without turning around.

'Say that after you get one of these bells.. Sasuke-kun.' Kakashi pushed himself off the tree he was leaning against and walked towards him. Sasuke turned around at the point to face him.

They stared at each other, both waiting for the other to make the first move.

Sasuke was the first as he quickly reached into his kunai pouch to throw some weapons. Kakashi simple dodged out the way.

'There's no point using ordinary attacks.'

Sasuke threw one final kunai and it snapped a rope causing Kakashi to have landed into trap.

Luckily for Kakashi he managed to jump out the way in time as a number of kunai came flying towards the tree he had just been by.

Sasuke having already guessed that Kakashi would dodge it appeared behind where Kakashi had landed.

'What?' Kakashi said as he knew he could not stop sliding across the dirt and was heading right into Sasuke's attack pathway. He quickly managed to block a kick which was aimed for his head with one arm and grabbed his foot with the other and his blocking arm readied itself for another attack. Sasuke threw the opposite side arm as Kakashi simply grabbed the punch before it collided.

Using the fact that Kakashi had all his hands full he threw all his weight into another kick in which Kakashi had to lift his arm up to block which put Sasuke right where he wanted him. Right by the bells. Sasuke smiled and started to reach for one. However Kakashi managed to pull himself away before Sasuke managed to take a bell so instead he managed to just gently touch it.

They both landed in the same position. 'He's fierce. I won't be able to read Icha Icha Paradise now.' Kakashi thought as he stared into this kids eyes. Sasuke looking back with a piercing glare.

Somewhere nearby, Sakura was slowly coming to. She pushed herself up into a sitting position as she started to take in her surroundings, 'What...What happened?' she said still slightly dazed. She yelped as she realised the position she was sitting in and moved to make it more proper.

'Sasuke-kun! I saw him! He was on the verge of...No!' She soon remembered the last thing she saw was the danger Sasuke was in.

'Sasuke-kun! No! You've got to survive, please! Where are you?' She shouted out hoping to hear anything which may lead her to him.

Naruto having been stuck hanging from the tree for some time swinging slowly from one side to the other. He crossed his legs as best he could and his arms, thinking of how to escape. As he was hanging so high he saw an area not far from where he was with a rock.

'Hey, what are those things down there?' He asked curiously. The rock looked important but what had drew Naruto's view there was he had saw small objects lying on it. On a closer inspection he found they were boxes.

'I know what those things are, they are bento.' He said excitedly but soon returned composure as he recalled his sensei's words, '"A ninja must see through deception."' Naruto started giggling mischievously as he had already cooked up a plan.

Kakashi stood staring at Sasuke as he stared back.

'Well, you are different from the other two, I'll give you that.'

Sasuke sniffed at that comment and readied himself yet again for combat.

He quickly formed hand sign after hand sign, 'Uma, Tora.'

He leaned backwards taking a deep breath. 'Katon!Gookakuu no Jutsu!'

Kakashi stumbled slightly with shock as Sasuke announced the jutsu, 'What? Genin can't do fire tricks. It takes too much chakra. There's no way..' But his thoughts were cut off as Sasuke started blowing fire from his mouth directing it towards the Jonin. It surrounded him in a large ball of fire. As Sasuke let up on the fire and the jutsu ended, all what was left was a large crater, his sensei was nowhere to be found, not even a burned one.

'Where did he go?' Sasuke questioned as he was overcome with shock, he was sure it had worked but after all he couldn't be sure. 'Behind me? Above? Where?'

'Below you!' A voice shouted slightly muffled and before Sasuke could look down a hand shot out of the ground and gripped Sasuke's leg.

'Right under you feet. Doton! Shinjuu Zanshu no Jutsu.' and with that Sasuke was pulled under the ground until only his head was sticking out and he had no way of escape.

Kakashi squatted down so Sasuke could see him easily however he avoided his eyes. 'That was Ninjustu, the third shinobi battle skill.' He waited for Sasuke to take it in but all he saw was Sasuke trying to struggle. 'Can't move, huh?' Sasuke looked away arrogantly. 'You have talent. I can see you potential already.' Kakashi continued smiling, but... they say the nail that sticks out get hammered down.' He had turned around and was walking away reading his book again.

Naruto had managed to escape and was now by the rock with the bento on. He was happily enjoying himself as he sat down with the bento's in his lap as his plan had entailed.

'If we don't get a bell, we don't get lunch.' He said as he rubbed his hands together in excitement and grace. 'All I have to do is eat it in secret! No one will know. Itadakimasu.' He said all with a huge grin on his face.

However unknown to him, he was being watched fairly close by.

'Hi.'

Naruto looked startled as he heard Kakashi's voice behind him, and sure enough when he looked Kakashi was squatted on top of the rock watching the scene below him.

'I was just...joking.' Naruto said hoping to get out of the mess he was in.

'Nice try.' Kakashi said eyes squinting.

Meanwhile where Sasuke was still buried, he struggled on to escape but he couldn't.

'He's stronger than I am, I can't get around that...' he thought but before he could think anymore he heard the rustling of trees and branches and out of the trees came Sakura.

She stopped mid-step as she saw Sasuke's head popping out of the ground. After what she had seen with Sasuke almost dying, she couldn't believe her eyes. She blinked many times as she stared at the head wondering if it was real or not. She almost faltered but by some miracle she managed to look back.

'Sakura.' Was all he said and she was suddenly screaming in terror and lost her cool, 'Now he is just a head and still talking!' She screamed almost incoherently but somehow Sasuke managed to understand it. Afterwards she passed out for the second time in the space of a few minutes.

Sasuke looked at her in distress, not for her but for him, 'And that's my partner..' He mumbled unbelievably.

Later on, Sakura came to. The first thing she saw was Sasuke leaning over her making sure she was okay. Somehow he had managed to get out of the ground and was okay.

'Sasuke-kun?' She asked questionably, she instantly leaned up and wrapped her arms around him and screamed with happiness, 'You're alive!'

Sasuke didn't return the hug he was startled by the sudden affection, he wasn't used to this, 'Stop hugging me!' He tried to tell her as he tried pushing her away but since he was caught off-guard Sakura wouldn't move and he couldn't push her away.

Eventually she broke away and blushed with embarrassment but she knew that she was never going to forget what would possibly be the best moment of her life, yet at least.

Sasuke regained his lost composure and stood up.

'I've got to get a bell before lunch. There's not much time...' He said and then started walking away.

Sakura followed him and stood up, 'Sasuke-kun, you're still trying to get one of those bells?'

Sasuke turned around, 'A while ago, I touched it, I can grab it next time.'

Sakura looked at him in shock. She knew he was a good student, no the best, but even she was surprised at how good he was to be able to actually touch a bell.

'That is really great... I can't believe you did that. You're so amazing.' She congratulated him but deep down she felt unnerved, 'I can't believe it! He touched one of the bells! I can never do that!' She thought complaining. 'If Sasuke-kun passes and I don't, then we'll be separated forever. No, no, no!'

She lightened her mood and spoke to Sasuke again, 'Err, there's not really enough time left, so... maybe we should just give up and try another time?' She offered.

Sasuke's eyes flashed and became dark, he obviously didn't agree with her comment. The glare she received shocked her and caused her to gasp.

He turned away from her and she started to look depressed. Sasuke then started thinking maybe they should give up, they were in way over their heads and Sasuke also considered they could get new partners and maybe they'd be even better than now but... all he could see was the events of that night and the face of that man with the red eyes and that through all reasoning out of the window.

The wind softly blew, 'I'm the only one...who can destroy that man.' Sasuke said without turning around.

Sakura was speechless. 'What? You mean Sensei?' She asked blatantly.

'That day... I was crying.' He carried on ignoring her irrelevant comment.

'Crying?' She asked wanting to get to know more about him even with them being in the current situation.

'It was my...' He said distantly, not to anybody in particular, he even forgot about Sakura's presence momentarily as he was lost within his troubled memories.

'What? What do you mean?' Sakura asked, wanting to know about this man he wanted, no needed, to kill.

'I am an avenger.' He replied snapped out of his short trance. 'That means I must be stronger than my prey... I need this training, there's no time for setbacks.'

Sakura thought back to the day before when they had been grouped together. She remembered that he said he was going to destroy a certain someone.

The clock chimed signalling the end of the exercise.

'Damn it, I've talked too much!' He said punishing himself. He started walking off towards the ringing clock.

'Sasuke-kun.' Sakura said quietly after his retreating figure and then started hurrying to catch up.

Once Sasuke and Sakura arrived they were told to sit either side of the log which was sticking up from out the ground. On there was some rope wrapped around it but when they reached the other side they saw that Naruto had been tied up.

In front of them were the bento's Naruto had tried to steal. They all tried to avoid direct eye contact with the bento in front of them but regretfully they just couldn't manage it as their stomachs all rumbled loudly at the presence of food.

Kakashi having heard this decided to rub it in, 'Uh-oh, stomachs growling, huh? That's too bad. By the way, about this exercise. Well, I've decided none of you need to go back to the Academy.'

Everyone's attention was diverted away from the food at the news they had received, they all rejoiced at the fact that they weren't going back to the Academy, even Sasuke cracked a rare smile.

'What? I passed? But I was conscious most of the time. Do I still pass?' Sakura asked stricken with shock.

'Then...then...that means all three of us!' Naruto stuttered not managing to get his words out properly.

Kakashi smiled at the innocence of his students and replied to them, 'Yes, all three of you. You must quit being a ninja!' He shouted at them.

The celebrating soon stopped at these words and all stared at his in anger, disbelief and shock.

'Unbelievable.' Iruka said as the Third Hokage was putting down his cup. 'Kakashi has never passed a single student, none at all!'

'Iruka...For those kids... Even I cannot say whether becoming ninja now is a good thing or not. However, I trust Kakashi's decision.' The Hokage replied slowly and wisely.

Iruka looked worriedly at the book he had only just recently put down and hoped with all his might that Naruto would pass Kakashi's harsh test.

'Drop us from the course? What do you mean? Fine, we failed the task of getting a bell but it doesn't give you the right to tell us to quit becoming ninja!' Naruto complained loudly, struggling with the ropes which bound him.

Kakashi stared at them no emotion appearing on his hidden face. 'You don't think like ninja. You think like little kids. Like brats.'

That was too far for Sasuke to handle and he sprinted forward to Kakashi to attack, 'I'll show him who's a brat.' he thought but as he got closer and Kakashi hadn't moved he thought that he was definitely going to do it.

Naruto and Sakura watched in amazement and worry as Kakashi quickly, he almost unseen, was sitting on the back of Sasuke who was lying on the floor and for good measure he had placed a foot on his head and held on of his arms behind his back. Dust swirled around them as both Sasuke and Kakashi kicked up during the struggle.

'You've just proved my point.' Kakashi said calmly.

'Let go of Sasuke-kun! You can't step on him like he's some bug!' Sakura shouted enraged but also fearful.

The pain which found it's way through the bones and muscles of his body were painful but he was able to endure it without much trouble but his face expression betrayed him.

'You think becoming ninja is child's play.' The three Genin's faces were shocked by this illumination. 'Why do you think we made you into a group to carry out this exercise?'

'What do you mean?' Sakura asked.

'It means... you never realised what this exercise is all about.'

'What it's about?' Naruto said puzzled, he didn't think there was a point to it really, just to get a bell.

'Yes. That's what determines whether you pass or fail.'

'But I wondered about that from the beginning.' Sakura retorted.

'Are your brains empty as well as your stomachs? Do you know what it means to be, "three people as one"?' Kakashi asked.

Naruto being the worst student he was became confused and still didn't know what the meaning of the exercise was, not that Sasuke, being the best student, knew either.

'"Three people as one"? What does it mean?' Naruto shouted out.

Kakashi resisted the urge to facepalm and didn't as it was a very serious matter he was dealing with, 'It's so basic. Teamwork!'

All Genin looked in shock and realisation, he was right, it was so basic all along. 'Cooperation, is that what you mean?' Sakura asked.

'That's what I mean. It's too late now but...if all of you had attacked at the same time you might have been able to take them. What a shame.'

Wait a minute, Sakura thought as she heard the tinkle of the bells, 'You set it up with three people but only two bells! If we worked together and got the bells, only two people could keep them. That would divide the group!' Sakura exclaimed.

'Exactly. I purposely set you up against each other...to see who would prioritise teamwork over selfishness. I wanted to pick out those who could do it. That was the main aim.' He said distantly looking away from the two Genin in front of him and away from the Genin below him. He then looked back and continued, 'But look at you three. Sakura! While Naruto was right in front of you, you wouldn't even help him. Naruto! You do everything on you own.' He spoke to each of them directly but everyone could hear their faults. He gave a slight push with his foot, 'You thought the others were so far beneath you. Pure arrogance!'

'Ninja missions are carried out in groups! Of course you need individual skills, but teamwork is the most important element – every shinobi understands this. When individuals put themselves above the group, this can lead to death. For example.' He said while pulling out a kunai from his pouch.

He quickly put the kunai by Sasuke's neck and shouted out, 'Sakura! Kill Naruto or else Sasuke dies!' Sakura was torn, she couldn't let him die but she couldn't kill her own team member, however Naruto panicked and looked at her and back at Kakashi repeatedly.

'This would happen.' He told them honestly and removed the weapon. Sasuke breathed in relief, he thought he'd had it then.

'Oh, boy. That was really scary.' Sakura said while breathing out a held breath she didn't know she had. Naruto also let out a breath.

Kakashi spun his kunai on his finger as he spoke to them again, 'The enemy takes a hostage, you have to make a choice. Someone ends up dead.' He caught it and put it away, then while getting off Sasuke he spoke again, 'On every mission, your life is on the line.' He started walking away from them and towards the large rock.

'Did you look at this stone? The names engraved on it. They are all ninja who are honoured as heroes in our village.' He said solemnly.

'That's it, that's it, that's it! Now I know!' Naruto said happily. 'I've decided! I'm going to have my name engraved on that stone!' Earning himself a glare from Sakura. 'I'm not going to die for nothing, I'm going to be a hero. A hero!' Sasuke had reached the pair again.

Kakashi looked behind him at the happy Naruto and felt slightly pissed off. 'But not just any hero.'

'What kind of heroes are they? Come on, tell us!' He asked innocently. Kakashi remained silent, trying to repress memories. 'Well? Well?' He said becoming impatient.

'They're all...KIA.'

'KIA?' Naruto replied unable to grasp the concept.

'It stands for "killed in action"' Sakura explained to him so their sensei didn't have to.

Naruto's face fell, he felt so guilty because of what he said, he never realised he could be that stupid. It made him sad to see all those names on the monument, knowing that each one was dead and he had been so disrespectful of it.

'This is a memorial stone. My closest friend's name is engraved here to.' He replied sadly but showing no emotion but if he did the Genin didn't see as he was still facing the stone and away from them.

They all remained silent as the watched him. Having thought over his memories he looked over his shoulder at them, 'All right. I'm going to give you one more chance. But this time it will be much harder. You'll have three hours to get a bell.'

All the Genin were stunned at his comment. 'Eat your bento now to build up your strength. Except Naruto.'

Naruto made a sound of complaint but Kakashi cut him off before he managed to open his mouth to speak, 'It's your punishment for trying to eat in secret.' Kakashi's face took on a dark look to it, 'And if anyone tries to feed him, that person will immediately fail.'

Naruto's mouth hung wide open as he tried to find a loophole in his comment but was angry when he found he couldn't. 'I set the rules around here. Got it?' He sounded very threatening and it appeared that they daren't give him any food.

'I'm leaving.' Iruka said to the Hokage as he made his way out.

Before he could leave the Hokage spoke, 'Iruka, listen to me. Whether they pass or fail, you must not blame Kakashi.'

Iruka was silent for a while before he finally managed to agree to it.

Sasuke and Sakura had opened there bento and were happily munching away but Naruto's stomach loudly rumbled disrupting the quietness. The pain of having no food was unbearable but Naruto knew he needed to persevere.

'This is no big deal. I can go without eating for days. For weeks!' He said putting on a brave face. 'I'm not bothered at all!' But his team-mates both knew that he desperately needed food, but they couldn't otherwise they'd fail. The loud rumbling returned once more and he rather weakly said, 'Just fine.'

Sasuke looked up at his distressed face and was in the process of handing Naruto his bento, 'Here.'

Naruto couldn't believe his eyes, that the person who he knew hated him most was offering him food which he shouldn't be having.

'No, Sasuke-kun, remember what Sensei said!' She worried warily looking around.

'Kakashi's gone. We need to get those bells as a team. If Naruto's hungry, he'll be weak and ineffective.' Sasuke said logically. 'He would slow down the team and will jeopardise the mission.'

Sakura looked at her bento guiltily, swallowed and handed it to Naruto for him to take.

Naruto looked at Sakura with emotion in his eyes. 'Sakura-chan...' he said on the verge of tears.

Sakura smiled at him. 'Tha...Thank you.' He said choked up.

'Don't thank me, just hurry up and eat.' Sakura pleaded.

'But..' Naruto said a little worried.

'I'm on a diet. I mean, I don't eat as much as Sasuke-kun, so... Just take it.'

'But...' He said struggling to even lift his hand higher than an inch as Kakashi had tied it that tightly. 'Look.'

'What?' Sakura almost screamed in anger, a eyebrow twitched in annoyance.

'Hurry up. He could come back any minute.' Sasuke said trying to hurry her up.

Sakura just tried to grin and bear it as he picked up a small bit of rice with her chopsticks. 'This one time only. That's it! I'll never do this again, is that clear?'

'Sure, very clear!' he grinned happily at the concept of food.

Sakura lead the rice to near Naruto's mouth as he bit the rice and started chewing it gratefully, Sakura wishing that it was Sasuke she was doing this to.

Suddenly after Naruto had swallowed that piece of food and eagerly awaiting the next, a large cloud of smoke appeared in front of them and harsh winds blew making Sakura's hair fly around her face. Both Sasuke and Sakura braced themselves again the gusts of wind.

'You!' Kakashi shouted enraged. Naruto and Sakura screamed as the gusts hit them but Sasuke just prepared to fight as he was expecting one to come.

'You broke the rules. I hope you're ready for the punishment.' He stood up from his crouched position and started performing a variety of hand signs. Large black clouds covered the recently clear blues skies, loud cracks of thunder came rolling in their eyes soon after the flash of the lightning. A large storm was coming and that storm was Kakashi.

'Any last words?'

Sakura trembled with fear as Sasuke stood his ground. Naruto was trying to justify their actions but he couldn't for the chattering of his teeth, 'But you said...'

Kakashi appeared interested by his words.

'You said...you said there's three of us!' He shouted, 'You said that... That's why...' He continued but this time looked at Sasuke and he looked back at Naruto.

'We're "three people as one", right?'

Sakura heard this a piped up, stopping her trembling, 'Yeah, that's right! We are "three as one"!'

Naruto having just realised that the others were backing him up he just agreed with everything they said, hoping it was enough.

'Three of you as one?' Kakashi said taking a few steps towards them with a menacing look on his face.

The three of them looked ready for battle, even if Naruto was all tied up, his face was determined.

'Passed!' Kakashi said finally smiling under his mask.

The students looked at him wondering if this was a joke or not. Sakura and Naruto looked hopeful but Sasuke remained sceptical.

'You passed.' He repeated enforcing the truth.

'What do you mean? How'd we pass?' Sakura asked still unbelieving.

The dark clouds in the sky dissipated leaving the spotless sky again.

'You're the first. The others just did what I said...couldn't think for themselves. A ninja must see through deception. In the ninja world, those who break the rules are scum. That's true. But those who abandon their friends are worse than scum.'

Sakura smiled widely, Naruto had tears welling up in his large emotional eyes and Sasuke finally smiled triumphantly.

'He's...you know... He's kind of cool.' Naruto managed to blurt out through the invading tears.

'The exercise is over. Everyone passes. Group seven's mission starts tomorrow!' Kakashi announced giving them all a thumbs up.

'Hai!' Sakura said in excitement who couldn't stop smiling.

Sasuke regained his composure and remained to be his usual moody self.

'I did it! I did it! I'm a ninja! Ninja! Ninja!' Naruto celebrated.

Kakashi faced away from them but still looked back, 'Let's go home.' He started walking away. Sasuke soon followed.

Sakura still celebrated, thinking 'I did it!' while lightly jumping on the spot quickly following on.

Naruto swung his legs uselessly as they were leaving him tied to the post. 'I knew they'd do this. It happens every time!' He shouted loudly and obnoxiously, 'You guys forgot to untie me!' He shouted hoping to get their attention.

_List of Jutsu used in this Chapter_

_Kawarimi no jutsu_

_Bento – Lunch Box_

_Uma - Horse_

_Tora - Tiger_

_Katon – Fire Style_

_Gookakuu no Jutsu - Great Fireball Justu_

_Doton – Earth Style_

_Shinjuu Zanshu no Jutsu - Double Suicide Decapitation Technique_

_Itadakimasu – Let's eat_

**So here it ends, thank you for the reviews these two weeks and glad to have a new reviewer, please continued to review thank you**


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